Halo Reach: What if Noble Six Survived in Lone Wolf?
by RichardHusky
Summary: Taking place two weeks after the Pillar of Autumn took off with Catherine Halsey and John-117, The Master Chief, Noble Six is alive but slowly losing a grip on reality, slipping in and out of his thoughts constantly, when he picks up a radio transmission that promises his survival. It is Noble Six's hope that he can get off of Reach, and secure his own safety.
1. Alone

**Hello, and welcome to my first fanfic ever! I take great pride in my work, and you will most likely not find any spelling errors. I like telling stories, and my fanfics, be it this one or any I make in the future, try to tell rich stories that make sense. For this one in particular I will try to stick to the Halo: Reach and Halo: CE stories as well as possible, with a few possible changes, considering the Chief isn't the only Spartan anymore. If I get a fact wrong that you feel is significant, please, write a review of what you think about my fanfic or future fanfics and also add in whatever I did wrong, and I will be sure to correct it.**

**Another quick thing about this series, the Six that I write about is the one that I played. Quick, efficient, socially aggressive and more brawn than brains (Although not by much), my Six is a very broken man. With his friends now gone, Six is more careful, slower to trust others, and is always worried about something. I thought I would add this just so everyone knows what character you're getting to know. **

**Happy reading!**

**~Husky**

* * *

Two weeks. Two long, excruciating weeks of hiding from Covenant forces. Scavenging. Fighting. He had struggled along ever since the Pillar of Autumn had taken off without him by his order, and he was near his breaking point.

This man was no mere man. He was a Spartan, a powerfully augmented super human soldier, taken into the SPARTAN-III program at age six as a war orphan. He was tough, and almost indestructible. Almost. He may have been a physical tank, but he wasn't void of emotion. Everyone he knew on the planet of Reach had either died or gone from the planet forever. Everyone. He was the newbie, but he had survived out in enemy territory longer than anyone had. He had set up a camp in an abandoned structure that the Covenant no longer inhabited, trying to be as quiet as possible. He was running out of MRE rations and the rest of humanity had left the planet long ago. He knew he was going to die. He had accepted that fact when the Autumn took off, and he knew that if he was going to die, he wasn't going to go out without a fight.

His helmet's visor had cracked in the first hour from the constant attack, so he simply removed his helmet. As long as he didn't get shot in his face, he was fine, he thought to himself. He still carried it with him, however, in hope that someone would use the radio, even though it was broken, and bring him home. Home. He thought about home every minute of every day, except when he was fighting, of course. His life before the SPARTAN-III program was one he couldn't remember, not now. The only thing he could recall was having no responsibility or care in the world. It had been a good feeling.. Those days were completely lost, and it saddened him. It angered him. Why did they take HIM? They could have taken any other child, but they chose him. What was their reasoning? He was never particularly athletic, or intelligent, but according to Catherine Halsey, the creator of the SPARTAN program, he was one of the deadliest Spartans alive, being described by Halsey herself as a "Hyper Lethal" soldier, and that his only equal was the war hero Master Chief. From what he could recall from his brief life before the SPARTAN-III program, he was a relatively average kid. It didn't make sense. He was so angry. He would never wish his fate on anyone, but he wished it hadn't been him. With a quick flick of his wrist and the power of his far above average strength, he tossed the broken helmet into one of the walls, forming a small crater, making a sound that was a mix between a slam and a click.

Wait a minute…

A click?

He heard clicking and static from inside of the helmet. The broken radio was no longer broken.

He rushed over to the helmet, pulled it out of the small hole he had made in the wall and put it on his head. "Hello?! Someone, Anyone, Respond! Anybody there?!" The Spartan said desperately. He had no way of knowing whether or not it was just a bit of static from the force in which he threw the helmet at the wall, but he didn't care if the chance to save himself was there. His time behind enemy lines had changed him. Damaged him. He didn't like it.

The radio went silent, and he could hear something that sounded like breathing on the other end. The Spartan's heart skipped a beat.

Static. Then a loud click. "Who are you?" a smooth, Slavic voice said. Someone else was here, thank god. He wasn't alone anymore. Not alone. Not...

"Hello? Are you there?" The voice said, breaking him out of his trance.

"Yes! Yes, I'm here!" The Spartan said, hoping that no Covenant could hear him, as if they did, he would never leave this planet.

"Are you human?" The voice said to him.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm a Spartan."

This did not draw the amazed voice of awe the Spartan thought that it would, as it had so many others. Regular soldiers would salute him when he was in the virtually impenetrable MJOLNIR armor, as if he was God himself. They acted envious, and he knew that they always wished they could be just like him. Little did they know…

"Where are you, exactly?" The smooth voice spoke.

The Spartan rushed through his thoughts. Where was he right now? He consulted the mental map he had created when he was alone, but came out blank. "I... I don't know. I'm in a two story building, up on a hill. There is a tower nearby, but aside from that..." He stopped himself. He was giving himself away.

He didn't even know if he could trust this person, but he had to. He pushed the dark thoughts of what might happen if he was wrong out of his mind. Then something occurred to him.

"Are you a human?"

A short pause.

"Yes." The voice said.

"What is your name?" The voice asked

The Spartan thought for a moment. "I... I can't remember. Sorry."

He never knew his name, as it was never asked of him. He always thought that it didn't matter that he didn't have a name as long as he kicked Covenant ass.

"My Spartan number is B312, if that helps."

" "B312?"

"Yes."

"I've heard that Spartan number before. Are you..."

The Spartan finished the sentence for him. "Noble Six. Yeah."

There was a short lapse in the conversation, and then the smooth voice responded.

"We have to get you out of here."

As those words escaped the mouth of the other man, the Spartan Noble Six's heart filled with hope. He had a chance. A chance...


	2. Found

It had been three hours since the Spartan, Noble Six, had gotten the transmission from the voice that promised his survival. It knew who he was, where he was, and WHAT he was. As a Spartan, Six's abilities were first developed to crush human rebellion, but were now used to crush Covenant skull. It was certainly an interesting and unique profession, but all in all, it was terrifying. He started out with a dream team, an unstoppable squad, and then ended up alone. There had been five others, four of which could be accounted for.

Jorge, Noble 5, the team's explosives expert and good friend of Six's had sacrificed himself to blow up a Covenant Corvette in attempt to halt the Covenant attack, but his sacrifice proved worthless, as dozens more took its place. Emile, Noble 4, the no bull and all guts badass of the squad, had been operating an Onager laser cannon trying to defend the Pillar of Autumn from a Covenant Battle cruiser, and was ambushed by two Elites, killing one and taking the other down with him. Kat, Noble 2, their genius and expert hacker, had been shot in the back of her head while her shields were down by a Sangheili Field Marshal in a phantom above Noble team as they were escaping the Covenant glassing of New Alexandria. Then there was Carter, Noble 1, the leader of Noble team, who had been piloting a pelican airship with Six and Emile inside, ran out of bullets while fighting an enormous scarab tank, and to clear the way he forced them out of the pelican and crashed the aircraft into the scarab's side, destroying himself and a legion of the Covenant.

Jun, their expert marksman and eye in the sky while Reach fell, however, was nowhere to be found. Six was not sure if he was dead or alive, and it unnerved him.

His thoughts continued to wander for a bit, and then he snapped out of his trance. This had been happening to him a lot since he was alone. He believed that it was because of his isolation that he was slowly starting to lose it, but he wasn't sure. He would sometimes sit and stare at one of the walls in whatever building he was hiding out in for hours, once or twice even forgetting to eat.

Suddenly, several plasma blasts ripped through the air and melted a portion of the concrete wall. Six grabbed his DMR and dove for cover, taking a prone position behind the pile of crates that he had collected and pushed together, making a decent piece of cover.

He could hear the roars of Elite Sangheili and Jackals outside of his shelter, and he knew that he was going to have to fight. He loaded a new clip into the rifle and adjusted the scope, then popped out of cover to take a quick look at what he was up against.

There were multiple elites, at least eight of them. No, Nine, there was one on a Ghost. One, two Hunters. Four Jackals, those were easy to spot. There were seven Grunts with plasma pistols, two with needlers, and one with a fuel rod cannon, too. He poked his head out of cover and shot three deadly accurate rounds into the line of Jackals, one dead center in the head, and the two other bullets ripping through another Jackal's face and chest. The first Hunter began charging its cannon, while the other grouped with four of the Elites and attempted an ambush. Six kept firing away, hitting one, two, four, six headshots on the group of Grunts, killing them instantly. Six dropped to the floor as soon as the first Hunter released its first shot and singed some of the hairs on his head. _The Helmet!_ He thought to himself. He got up onto his feet and dove for the headgear. Suddenly, to his right, the other Hunter appeared and began charging its cannon for a full power blast. The Elites appeared around him, almost out of thin air. As Six slipped the helmet on his head to protect his face, he realized that his efforts were futile. The Elites started firing plasma at his armor, eroding some of the metal plating and draining his shields.

"Shit!" The Spartan shouted as he pulled out a hand grenade, threw it into the crowd and dove out of the side of the building.

It was a thirty foot drop, one that he could have easily survived with full shields. But with none? The odds were slim. Hopefully his armor would absorb most of the impact.

Three seconds later, Six hit the ground with a loud thump and a crack. The chest plate of his armor had cracked open, and the only thing between the air and his skin was the gel layer and thick black bodysuit on his torso. If he was shot now, he would be done for.

Suddenly, the sound of a 50 caliber Sniper Rifle shredded the air around Six, causing him to drop to the floor to avoid being hit, as two Elites fell to the ground, both killed by the same round.

The Hunter jumped from the window and almost landed on Six before he rolled to his left and grabbed his gun. Six unloaded the entire clip into the soft, wormlike body tissue of the Hunter's head and abdomen, killing it just as the magazine ran dry. The Hunter's corpse slammed into the ground, the noise startling the four remaining grunts, as they were picked off by the Sniper Rifle behind Six. Again, Six instinctively dropped to the floor, not knowing if this Sniper was friend or foe. More shots, from both the Sniper and Six. Jackals and Elites dropped like stones as Six aimed for the other Hunter.

Suddenly, Six was swept off of his feet by a Ghost that was going full speed. As Six clung to the front of the ghost, he fired his DMR at the Elite driving, causing the ghost to swerve and flip down the hill. As they rolled, Six grabbed the Elite by its chest piece, placed his elbow at its throat, and crushed its esophagus and snapped its neck as he landed on the ground.

More Sniper rounds. Two, three four into the second Hunter. A pause. It blocked a fifth and sixth with its mounted shield. Six got onto his feet and charged the hunter with his combat knife ready. He jumped onto the Hunter's back just as it was about to fire at the Sniper's cover with its cannon. Six drove the knife into the neck of the Hunter and ripped back with his blade, pulling the Hunter's head back and exposing the soft insides of its neck to the Sniper. Two rounds across where Six cut the Hunter appeared inside of the its neck, killing it.

There were two Elites left, but Six could only see one. The second Elite put its arms in front of Six's and held him from behind as the one he was facing pulled out its Energy Sword and charged.

In a daring moment of bravery and stupidity, Six lifted the lower half of his body and kicked the Elite directly in its toothy maw, stunning it and knocking the sword out of its hand. Six grabbed the sword with his feet before it hit the ground, and as the Elite was holding him, he flipped up, feet in the air, got behind the Elite, and buried the razor sharp plasma blade into the Elite's back with his boots.

As the Sniper picked off the last of the Covenant, including the Elite that had been kicked, Six raised his gun up, but there were no more living Covenant to be found. Six's shields started to recharge, but more slowly than usual, as if they had been damaged during the battle. Six removed his helmet, and began to shout.

"WHO ARE YOU?!"

Then, the familiar sound of static that came from his helmet. Surprised, Six slipped the helmet back onto his head.

"You know me; I like to stick back in a fight." The smooth Slavic voice said.

"I… KNOW you?"

Just then, the figure dropped from its perch.

He could tell from the shape of the figure that it was definitely male. As the character approached, he could make out that his armor was green. He had netting and grass on him, and his visor was… Was…

Six ran full speed at the figure, catching him in a very shaky hug.

"I'm not alone! I'm not alone I'm not alone I'm not…"

The figure felt slightly uncomfortable, but that was okay. He had no idea what Six had gone through, but it must have been bad, he thought to himself.

"It's okay, Six. It's okay." The smooth Slavic voiced, green armored eye in the sky said.

And that eye in the sky was one Six knew well.

That eye in the sky was Jun.

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**Just so everyone knows, I had no idea what had happened to Jun after Reach fell, so I thought it would be cool to see what might have happened if he had never escaped from Reach with Hallsey and John.**

**Keep reading, dudes and gals!**

**~Husky**


	3. Aszod

"_This one's for Jorge!" Emile shouted as he fired the Onager laser cannon at the Covenant CSS-Class battlecruiser. Another shot. "That was for Kat!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. Noble Six had never seen Emile like this. He was usually a calm, collected and efficient killer. But now, Emile was more than that. This was the first time that Six had ever seen him display any form of emotion. Suddenly, one Elite approached the hatch. There was the sound of a singular shotgun blast and Six looked up to the cannon. "WHO'S NEXT?!" Emile shouted angrily. Out of nowhere came another Elite from behind Emile, who impaled him upon its energy sword. This hurt him, but it also made him angry. Realizing that he was done for, Emile decided to go out in style. "I'M READY! HOW 'BOUT YOU?" Emile yelled, as he took his kukri knife and plunged it into the Elite's neck._

_ Emile was dead. He was alone, and he was surrounded. Six stayed strong and kept fighting. Suddenly, an Elite jumped on his chest and pinned him to the floor. As he struggled to push it off of him, it whispered something to him._

"_Six!" it whispered._

"_NO! GET OFF OF ME!" He yelled, and hit it in the face with a forceful punch._

"_Ouch! God dammit Six!" The Elite said to him._

That was the moment when Six realized that he was just dreaming. It wasn't real. He had been having nightmares since about a week ago, reliving the horrors that he had gone through, and the most prominent being the loss of his squad mates. Every time, the dream ended with Six himself getting killed. But this time, the Elite woke him up. Why?

He sat up quickly, pistol raised and aiming at…

Jun.

"Jesus Christ, Jun, you scared the living crap out of me." Six said with a heavy breath.

"Hehe, it's okay Six. Ow, you pack a punch." The smooth, Slavic voiced Spartan said. "_You _scared _me_. You were having a nightmare, yes?"

"Yeah… about Emile." Six said as he put his head between his knees.

Jun gave Six an understanding look, then looked at the sunrise. "It is daytime now, Six. We have to get moving if we want to get to the fleet."

The "Fleet" that he was speaking of was not human, but Covenant. While scouting for a way off of the planet, Jun found a legion of Covenant taking refuge at Aszod, the location of where the Pillar of Autumn used to be docked. Instead of glassing the planet, The Covenant decided that they would take the death sight of Emile and the Onager for themselves, as well as use the base as a Covenant docking station. Just thinking about it made Six tremble with disgust. He knew for sure that they had taken other bases for themselves, too. No doubt about it.

"What time is it?" Six asked.

"From the position of the sun, I would say about… 8:00AM, give or take an hour or so.

"Alright… Let's move." Six said to Jun, trying his best not to look afraid.

Jun put his helmet on and got his rifle. Six decided it would be nice to have, but the helmet would ultimately hinder him in a firefight. He carried it with him just in case he and Jun needed to communicate from far away, which would ultimately happen because of Jun's weapon of choice, his trusty Sniper Rifle.

As they walked to the base at Aszod, Six had a new surge of fear wash over him. He shrugged it off and kept moving. As he walked, he thought about his fear. He didn't understand how he could get so far and simply break down, going from unstoppable badass to afraid of the Covenant. Of course, he had been alone and faced death every day, it was only inevitable that he would lose it a little bit. He was glad he had come across Jun, and he was relieved that he wasn't the only surviving member of Noble team. Each of them died horribly, and he almost went down with them. As they walked towards Aszod, Six felt safe for the first time in a very, very long time.

_13 Hours Later…_ _

"You'd think that the Covenant would be a little bit more active than this." Six said with a sigh.

"I know." Said Jun. "It is… Unusual for them to be so quiet. You should try to get closer to them. I can provide covering fire in case things do not work out as planned."

"Yeah, I'd hate to put you in a bad position up there. Try to find an easily defensible area with a lot of brush; your armor is the same color as the grass here." Six said.

"Alright. Move up, Six. I have your back, friend." Jun said with his usual confident, slick tone.

Six flashed a white toothed smile at Jun, and then snuck down the hill. It was nighttime now, and right about the time that Six wished his helmet wasn't busted, as it was equipped with a night vision feature, and would be very useful in picking out targets. _Well, you can't have everything,_ Six said to himself. As he approached, even his eyes could make out what was in the distance. His jaw dropped. There were at least fourteen Phantoms in the area, and three of them were taking off. There were many Banshees, and at least four dozen Sangheili.

_I can hardly believe that I agreed to this plan,_ Six thought.

The plan in question was this: Highjack a Covenant Phantom and fly it into Human Airspace so they could be found. In short, damned crazy. However, Six trusted Jun for his intellect on the same level that he trusted his aim, and he knew that there was no other way to do it.

As he traversed forward towards Aszod, he noticed that the Covenant in the area were particularly lax, probably thinking that there wasn't a chance in hell that they would be attacked.

They were dead wrong.

Six was almost seen three times on his way to the landing platform where the phantoms were kept, and Jun almost pulled the trigger on an Elite that he thought saw Six. Luckily, neither were the case, and Six made it to the landing platform relatively intact. Six had never seen such a large amount of covenant machinery up close, but he had to stay very alert to not be seen, as if he stopped to marvel at it for too long, their cover would certainly be blown sky high.

"Jun, I'm at the landing platform, come in, Jun." Six said into his radio.

"I read you." Jun replied.

"Do you see me? I'm in between the first and second Phantoms. On the left." Six said, as he waved his arms back and forth.

"Yeah, I see… Shit!"

"What? What's wrong?"

"Several hostiles converging on your location, Six! Hide!"

"Shit." Six said under his breath. It wasn't anything the two Spartans couldn't handle, but the extra three or so dozen would be if they chose to go loud.

Six hid behind the engine of one of the phantoms as the Elites passed, but one stayed nearby.

"Am I clear to take it out?" Six said into the radio.

"Negative, there are more hostiles… Uh oh."

"What now?"

"There are two more Elites approaching from your-"

"Left, yeah, I see 'em. I can't hide from them without getting seen, I'm going to have to go loud."

A short pause, maybe two seconds.

"Affirmative."

The sound of a sniper rifle ripped through the air, and an Elite dropped to the floor.

Six pulled up his DMR and got ready for battle.


	4. Tragedy

Plasma ripping through the air. Bullets flying in all directions. One shot. Two shots. Three. Four. An overcharged plasma blast flew through the air and caught Six directly in the chest. An Elite was hopping over the barricade that he was hiding behind to finish him off. It sliced its energy sword directly at Six's face. He dodged the attack, but the sword cut the turret that was on the underside of the Phantom, disabling it. Six punched the elite in the face, twice in the gut, and then stabbed it in the heart. He left the knife buried in the Elite's chest and ran for his life. No time to pull it out. He could hear the sound of a sniper rifle in the distance. Jun. Jun was in trouble. He ran across the base as fast as he could, shooting several Elites on the way.

"Jun? Jun! Do you read me?" Six shouted into the radio.

"I read you, Six! There are too many of them! Get over here, quickly!" Jun shouted back.

He couldn't let Jun die. He had to hurry. He could see Jun in the distance battling several Elites at once. For a Spartan who preferred long ranged combat, he could handle things up close and personal quite well. Six watched Jun as he ducked, span, jumped and rolled around the Elites while hacking away at them with his combat knife. He got into a rhythm, ducking and rolling faster than Six thought possible.

Six raised his DMR and fired the entire clip into the Elites surrounding Jun. One kill, two kills, three, all headshots. Jun took his knife and stabbed the last of the four Elites in the bottom of its chin, killing it instantly. Six reached the top of the hill.

"You seemed to handle yourself pretty well before I helped." Six said as he blasted numerous Covenant.

"I was relying on instinct. What can I say?" Jun replied, killing several Covenant.

"We have to get to one of those Covenant aircraft, Six, before we are overwhelmed."

"Well, what the hell is the plan?" Six responded. "I can't exactly run back in there Jun!"

"I think you're going to have to, Six. I'll come with you, just to be safe." Jun replied

Six groaned audibly. "Fine. We have no other choices anyways. Cover me, I'm going in."

Six ran into the thick of the battle, DMR in one hand, grenade in the other. He chucked the grenade into a pack of Jackals, and before they could move, he shot the grenade. The Jackals hit the terrain embedded with shrapnel.

"Move, Jun! Go!" Six yelled.

Jun advanced down the hill, picking off several of the attacking Covenant as he went down. A blast from a covenant carbine hit Jun in the shoulder, catching him off balance. He slid down the rest of the hill, almost falling flat on his back.

"Move up, Six!" Jun shouted as he regained his balance. "I have your back!"

"Got it!" Six replied. As he ran, Six could see an Elite dropping every time Jun's sniper took a shot. He was glad his back was covered by someone who knew what they were doing. As he used up the last of his DMR magazines, Six reached the landing platform for the second time that night.

"Go Jun, go! Run!" Six yelled through the radio. Jun was maybe 30 yards away. He was easy pickings for any Covenant that might catch him off guard. Six wasn't about to take the chance. He pulled out his magnum and fired at several Elites that were getting too close to the now mobile Jun. However, while keeping an eye on Jun, he failed to notice the Sangheili General that was behind him. As Six's back was turned, the Elite deployed his wrist blades and went for Six's neck. Six had just enough time to turn before the Elite General was upon him. Pinned to the concrete. Six could not cover Jun this way. He had to act fast, or the whole plan would be ruined. He grabbed the Elite's arm and forced it upwards, attempting to pierce the Elite's temple with its own weapon, but Six missed the head by a longshot. The Elite readied its other wrist blade and went in for the kill.

This was it.

End of the line.

"NO!" Jun shouted. He heard a grunt as Jun tackled the Elite and stabbed it several times in the throat. The dying Elite made one last attempt to inflict a wound in one of the Spartans, and it made its mark, stabbing Jun directly in the shoulder. The other Spartan merely grunted as he finished off the general, and ran for the nearest Phantom.

"Goddamn Covenant. I fucking hate them." Six said as he caught up with Jun.

"Eh. I kill the enemy, but I do not hate them." Jun replied.

"Your choice." Six fired back with a grin.

The two Spartans approached the controls to the aircraft. Six had no experience piloting a Phantom, but he figured that it was similar to any other aircraft.

"Cover me, I'll man the controls." Six said to Jun.

"You should really hurry up and learn how to fly this thing, Six, we have company!" Jun responded.

Jun raised his rifle and emptied the clip several times into the attacking Covenant. He killed about a dozen Elites, but it still wasn't enough. He saw several Banshees approaching them at high speed. They needed to take off, now.

"I've almost got it!" Six shouted.

"Whatever you are trying to do, Six, do it fast!" Jun replied as he downed another half dozen Sangheili.

The telltale sound of Banshee plasma bolts echoed through the air as the green grenade-like missiles struck the side of the Phantom. Jun was running low on ammo.

"C'mon! Up!" Six shouted at the controls, frustrated and afraid.

Suddenly, the phantom went lurching upwards.

"Hey, Jun! I got it! I got it!" Six shouted in disbelief.

"Go! Go!" Jun yelled back.

Six located the booster and flew forwards, going as fast as they can to outrun the Banshees.

No dice. The Banshees were smaller and faster.

Jun was unloading his clip in the most quick and precise manner he could, hitting a few wings and even catching one of the banshees in a booster, causing it to lag behind the rest. Jun unloaded his clip and inserted another. He fired four more shots. He reached back down to grab a new clip, but came up with nothing.

"I'm out of bullets, Six!" Jun shouted to the new pilot.

"Switch!" Six yelled back.

Six and Jun swapped places and continued their escape.

Six was low on DMR ammo to begin with, and he had maybe three clips left. He also had his Magnum and a few Plasma Grenades that he had looted from the group of grunts that they had killed the day Jun arrived. Not enough to take down a dozen Banshees. Regardless, Six fired away while the Covenant did the same. It took nearly an entire clip to pierce the first Banshee's armor, so Six decided to go for the engines and boosters instead. It took only four rounds to destroy the first booster, which was being used at the time, causing the driver to boost directly left into the cliff face near where the Autumn used to be. Two of the other Banshees were already damaged from Jun's Sniper Rifle, so six aimed for their wings. After two shots, the first Banshee's wing, already badly damaged by Jun, broke off and fell to the ground below, causing the second banshee to go down.

_I hope it lands on a Sangheili's head, _Six thought to himself.

They were getting far away from Aszod, and eight or nine of the pursuing Banshees retreated back to the now Covenant base. There were three banshees still hot on the hijacked Phantom's tail, and they didn't look like they were going to give up anytime soon.

As six emptied his last clip into one of the final Banshees, taking it down, he felt his heart sink. A Magnum wasn't going to do anything. Unless…

"Is the Phantom's plasma cannon working?" Six yelled to Jun.

"No! It is malfunctioning! I would have activated it sooner had it been on!" Jun yelled back.

"God dammit! That was my last idea, and I'm out of ammo!" Six shouted.

"Are you sure that you have no other ideas?" Jun said back.

"Not any that might work." Six replied.

There was a pause of about five seconds.

"Do you see any Covenant Jetpacks back there?" Jun said.

"Yes, there's a few. What are you going to do, go out there and…" Six stopped himself. He realized what Jun was proposing.

"Take the controls, Six!" Jun shouted. He turned on the automatic piloting system and ran to the side of the Phantom. He started connecting the Jetpack to his armor.

"No, Jun! I'm not letting you do this!" Six yelled.

"I have to!" Jun yelled back.

"NO YOU DON'T! You could DIE, Jun!"

"I HAVE TO TAKE THAT CHANCE, SIX!"

Six was stunned. He had never seen Jun like this before.

Suddenly, a Banshee's Green plasma beam hit the side of the Phantom, knocking six off of his feet. Jun stayed on his feet and braced his balance, then jumped out of the Phantom onto one of the Banshees below.

"JUN!" Six screamed. "Goddammit!"

Six watched with horror as Jun ripped the driving Elite out of the Banshee and threw him to the depths below. Jun them mounted the Banshee and dodged the second Banshee's fire, and then shot a plasma beam directly at the other Banshee, destroying it.

However, Jun's own Banshee had already been damaged by Six's fire, along with the plasma bolts that were shot at it. It was on fire, and ready to explode. Jun rode it up to the side of the phantom, but the Banshee was losing altitude. Jun climbed on top of the Banshee and made a ten foot high super human jump to the Phantom, thirty feet above him. Activating his jetpack, Jun flew up about 18 more feet until the pack began to stall, and Jun began falling.

"NOOOO!" Six shouted as he dove down to the edge of the phantom, hanging on for dear life with one hand outstretched to Jun, the other clamped onto the edge of the Phantoms floor.

Jun caught Six's hand.

Six used newfound strength to pull himself up, then started pulling up Jun.

"Thank you, Six. I owe you—"

Jun was cut off by the beam rifle shot that penetrated his helmet and traveled cleanly through his brain.

It killed him instantly.


	5. Autumn

**Sorry for the short chapter! I didn't have as much time as I Normally do!**

**Happy Reading!**

**~Husky**

* * *

The force of the shot echoed through Jun's brain like a shockwave, pulling his lifeless body to the right, smashing his armor against the side of the Phantom and making Six lose his grip on Jun's hand. Jun's corpse fell from the sky at a fast pace, but Six felt it in slow motion. He watched Jun slowly fall from his chance at escaping. Six watched with every muscle in his body seized up as his last friend fell to the murky depths below.

"No. No no no! NO!" Six's heart was racing. He had no idea what to do. He was clueless. Jun was the man with the plan, not him. He raced through his head. He had to hurry before Covenant Reinforcements arrived

_What was Jun's plan?_ Six thought to himself. _Think, Six, Think!_

"_We need to get to Aszod, Six." Jun said to him._

"_Heh, yeah. No fucking way are we going back there" Six replied._

"_Hear me out. While I was out here, I came across Aszod. I steered clear, because the Covenant were setting up a base of some sort. Maybe, if you or me can sneak into Aszod, we can take a Phantom and leave Reach."_

"_That's insane, Jun. Where would we even go?"_

"_We could go find the Autumn." Jun said._

That was it. He had to find the Pillar of Autumn. Surely then he would be safe.

His only regret was that he had no time to mourn.

_**168 Hours Later**_

_Enter Clancy Maegan, a UNSC Marine._

Clancy let out an audible sound of awe. Just moments ago, the Pillar of Autumn had exited Slip space and stumbled upon a very large ring in the sky. Everyone was calling it a "Halo". It was just… floating there. Clancy thought that it was the coolest thing he had seen since he had seen Petty Officer John-117 in Cryo-sleep yesterday. Clancy was a UNSC Soldier, a fighter for the Human's Marines. Although he thought himself to be a capable fighter, he knew he didn't compare to the Master Chief, not by a longshot. Maybe he knew what this thing was. Surely they would wake him up. He wondered if…

"I've got readings of Covenant Aircraft behind us!" Someone shouted.

Clancy was surprised. He hadn't known that the Covenant had tracked them all the way from Reach. That scared him.

"Its… It's a lone Phantom!"

What? That was very strange. The Covenant have never attacked so pitifully.

"Shoot it down!" Someone else said.

"Wait!" Said Clancy. Everyone looked at him.

"What if… What if it isn't Covenant? What if its Human?" Clancy said.

"What are you implying?" a Lieutenant said to him.

"What I'm implying is… Maybe they followed us. Maybe… They're from Reach."

The room went silent.

"You had better be correct, boy. Because if you aren't, you're risking a lot of lives. It could be the first of hundreds of phantoms. Thousands."

Clancy was sure that he was right. It was not typical of the Covenant to do such a thing as this.

"I'm sure." Clancy said.

The Lieutenant was wavering. Today was not the day he would take orders from a Corporal. But in his head, the soldier's idea made a lot of sense.

There was a brief pause.

"Hold your fire. Give it a minute." The Lieutenant said into his radio transceiver.

"Roger." Someone else responded on the other end.

The person manning the radio to communicate with the Phantom was Clancy's sister, Abigail. She was his little sister, and he loved her. He only wished that he could protect her from all of this madness.

"Hello? Is anyone there!? Hello?!" A gruff male voice was shouting on the other end.

" Yes, this is Abigail Maegan of the Pillar of Autumn. Identify yourself." Abigail said.

"I'm -artan number B-ot away fro-each."

"Repeat, soldier, you're breaking up."

"This is Noble Six! My Spartan number is B-" And then simply static.

Clancy's jaw dropped. There was another Spartan. Clancy could feel all eyes drawn directly to him. The Lieutenant's, his sister's. Everyone. And then someone started clapping. Then cheering. Everyone followed suit.

"Lieutenant Bradley here. The Phantom the just showed up on our Radar is the Spartan III unit Noble Six commandeering a stolen Covenant Aircraft.

All the while, everyone was cheering Clancy on. He was glad he said for them to hold their fire.

Humanity's chances increased tenfold.


	6. Chief

Captain Jacob Keyes had just received news that Noble Six was alive and that there were now two Spartans left to fight. Keyes was very glad that Six and the Chief were on the Pillar of Autumn, but they were expecting an attack from the Covenant within the next ninety seconds. Along with the report that their fighting force had strengthened tenfold, he had also received another that the Covenant were approaching the Autumn from the far side of the planet that was located nearby the Halo.

"Well, that's it then. Bring the ship back up to Combat Alert Alpha. I want everyone at their stations." Keyes said aloud.

"Everyone, sir?" A disembodied female voice said back.

"_Everyone_." He replied.

The alarm klaxon sounded, and everyone was getting ready for the incoming attack.

"And Cortana..." Keyes said.

"Hmm?" Cortana replied as her AI form took place in front of Keyes.

"… Let's give our old friends a warm welcome." Keyes said.

"I've already begun." Cortana said.

Just then, Noble Six walked into the room. Since he had boarded the Autumn, he had gotten a set of replacement armor, a set of his old Mark V with a dark Steel color. He walked into the control room with a stern look on his face, helmet held in the crook of his arm like a football. He walked over to Captain Keyes.

"Sir." Noble Six said, and saluted the captain.

"At ease, Spartan." Keyes said.

What's the situation?" Noble Six said to the Captain.

"When we exited slip space, we came across a large ring suspended in space. It is called a Halo. We aren't sure what it is, or what it is doing here, but we suspect that the Covenant might be hunting for it. Be it a relic or a base of some sort, we can't let the Covenant get their hands on it. However, the Covenant realizes that we might try to stop them, so they are approaching us from the far side of the planet. They'll be here in less than a minute. That's why I've given orders to send our two best and brightest soldiers out onto the field. You…" Keyes paused.

"And the Master Chief." Six said.

"Correct. You'll be working with the Master Chief to take out any Covenant that set foot on this vessel. Can you handle that?"

"Easy. With two Spartans, this'll be a breeze."

"Then get moving. They're releasing the Master Chief now. Get down there and assist him." Keyes said to Six.

"Sir, yes sir." Six replied.

As six walked out of the room, Keyes stopped him.

"Six!" Keyes said as Six was walking out of the door.

"Yes sir?" Six said back

"Be careful out there. It's a blessing that we found you; we can't lose our Spartans when we've just gained the advantage. Especially not now that we've discovered Halo." Keyes said.

Six smirked. "I'll try, Captain." He said as he slipped on his helmet, locked it in place, and prepared for battle.

_Meanwhile…_

A whooshing sound. Cold. His armor switched on. He was awake.

"His suit shows green. Cycle complete." Someone said.

A tech chief stepped towards him and saluted.

"Sorry for the quick thaw, Master Chief. Things are a little hectic right now. The disorientation should pass quickly." Another man, a tech officer, said.

"Vital signs look normal. No freezer burn. Okay sir, go ahead and climb out of the cryo tube." The tech chief said to him.

He stepped out of the Cryogenic sleep unit and gave a quick look at the surroundings. The Pillar of Autumn. The Chief could hear Cortana's voice over the Intercom.

"Fire teams: Report to defensive positions Alpha through Sierra. Sensors show inbound Covenant boarding craft. Stand by to repel boarders." She said.

That didn't sound good.

The automatic doors slid open and a Steel Mark V-clad Spartan ran through the doors. This took Master Chief by surprise. He was sure that he had been the only Spartan on this ship.

"So you must be the famous John-117. It is a pleasure to meet you." Six extended his hand as a friendly gesture.

"Right. And you are…?" The Chief said back.

"SPARTAN-B312, Noble Six." Six replied.

"Sounds familiar, but I don't recognize you." The Chief said

"If you want, I can refresh your memory. I covered the Pillar of Autumn with a giant Onager Rail gun while you were locked up in that cryo-tube of yours, and I protected that AI you have on this ship and brought it here."

"Cortana?" Chief said.

"That's the one." Six replied.

"Well, you sound capable. So what is going on, exactly?"

"There is a lot of Covenant outside firing on the Autumn. They've got multiple boarding aircraft, as well. I don't know exactly how much time we have until they get in, but we're supposed to meet up with the Sergeant Major." Six said.

"Alright. Lead the way." The Chief said.

"But we haven't finished your armor calibration, yet. If you'd just give us a moment…" the first marine said.

"I'm fine. I have another Spartan covering me, anyways. Stay safe, you two." Master Chief said as Six and him walked towards where Keyes said Sergeant Major Johnson would be.

They walked in on the Sergeant Major giving the marines a motivational speech before battle. According to Keyes, that was probably what he would be doing when they got there, and he was dead on.

"Men, we led those dumb bugs out to the middle of nowhere to keep 'em from gettin' their filthy claws on Earth. But we stumbled onto somethin' they're so hot for, that they're scramblin' over each other to get it. Well, I don't care if it's God's own anti-son-of-a-bitch machine, or a giant hula hoop, we're not gonna let 'em have it! What we will let 'em have...is a belly full of lead, and a pool of their own blood to drown in! Am I right, Marines?" Johnson said.

"SIR, YES SIR!" The marines replied.

"Uh-huh. Damn right, I am. Now move it out! Double time!"

Six and Chief approached the Sergeant Major, and he turned to them.

"Here we go, now those bugs have more to worry about than the whole damn UNSC. I expected them to take longer to thaw you out, Chief." Johnson said.

"We skipped some of the diagnostics. I was told that we needed to get down here, so we did. He said that it was urgent." Master Chief said.

"And you, look ready to fight. I've never seen you before. State your name, Spartan."

"Noble Six, first Lieutenant."

"Which means you outrank me by about half a dozen ranks, is that right?"

"I guess it does."

"Well, I guess that means you'll be able to make some important decisions, too. Make the right ones, you hear?" the Sergeant Major said to Six.

"Will do. Now, back to what you called us down for. I was told it was important." Six said.

"Hell yeah it is. The Covenant have almost gotten through—"

Suddenly, Six, Chief, and Johnson were interrupted by the blood-curdling scream of a Sangheili. They turned to find the image of the savage warrior brutally murdering the tech officer and chief that had been attempting to calibrate Master Chief's armor minutes ago.

Several more Elites were pouring from the doorway, which scared Six into grabbing Master Chief and the Sergeant Major and forcing them to move.

"We'll have a better chance if we meet up with the marines ahead. I'm not throwing lives away to these pieces of shit." Six said.

"Good idea." Johnson said.

It took them a minute, but they finally caught up with the marines. When they got there, the marines looked in awe at the two Spartans.

"Woah." A particularly awestruck marine said

That voice happened to be the one of Clancy Maegan, the marine that convinced the Lieutenant not to give the orders to shoot down the Phantom that Six was in.

Another marine looked at Clancy and nudged his shoulder.

"Hey Clancy, I bet that you didn't expect this, huh?" he said.

"Not in a million years." He replied.

"Listen up, marines! This here is the Master Chief, and next to him is the Spartan Lieutenant Noble Six. You know what that means?" Johnson boomed.

"That we actually have a chance now?" a marine said.

"We had a chance to begin with, whether it was a slim one or not! What it means is that you treat these men with respect! Master Chief and Noble Six are two of the last Spartans that we know aren't dead yet. Along with that information, Noble Six outranks even me, so obey him as you would if you were obeying ME! Is that understood, marines?" He shouted.

"SIR, YES SIR!"" The marines shouted back.

A marine came up running from behind the rest. All of the marines, including Clancy, moved to the sides of the hallway to make way for him.

"Master Chief! Captain Keyes needs you down at the bridge! It is very important!" the marine said in between gasps.

"Thank you for the information, soldier." The Chief said.

"Sergeant Major," Six said. "Do you think that you can hold off these Sangheili while we make our way to the bridge?"

"Easy pickings," Clancy said aloud.

"What he said. Get ready marines! Move, Spartans, move!" Johnson said as he got into a stance that made him look like he was born for this. He probably was.

"Alright. Let's get down to the bridge, Chief." Six said.

"Aye aye, Cap'n." Chief said.

Noble six smirked.

"That's Lieutenant to you, mister." Six said.

They both chuckled as they ran to the bridge as fast as their feet could take them.


	7. Captain

Six and the Master Chief had both seen plenty of death in their careers, usually being the only survivors in a firefight. What was happening now was no exception.

Six could hear the firing of assault rifles and magnums behind him. He could hear the roars of Covenant from his sides through the walls. They were almost to the bridge.

A man ran up to the Chief and Six. He saluted the both of them.

"Sirs! The Captain needs you both on the bridge, ASAP!" The man said.

"How close are we?" Six said. He had never been on this ship before.

"We're pretty close, just follow me!" the man said to them. "By the way, my name is PFC Chips Dubbo, sirs. The Captain sent me to retrieve you."

"Lead the way." The Chief said.

As they went through the next set of doors, they came across a room that was full of dead and wounded marines. Under his helmet, Six cringed. It reminded him of his team. Six was now glad that he was a Spartan, even if it was only because he was harder to kill.

The three of them could hear the sounds of fighting behind them. A soldier was firing on a group of Covenant when Six turned around. The Soldier ran out of ammo. Instead of panicking, he did the smart thing and ran for his life. He ran through the blast doors and shut them.

"Where's the rest of your team?" the Chief said to the soldier.

"Johnson is alright. A lot of them though… They're dead. Oh, man, we are SO fucked!" the soldier said.

"Relax." Six said. "What's your name?"

"Cl… Clancy, sir. Clancy Maegan. I'm a Corporeal." The marine said.

"Alright, Clancy, well, we're Spartans, we have this under control. Stick behind us and try not to get shot." Six said.

"Whoa. I never thought I would have a Spartan covering me in a gunfight." Clancy said.

"The hope is that we don't GET into a gunfight." Dubbo said.

"If we do, we can handle them." Six said.

It took the four of them less than a minute to get to the bridge after that. Clancy stayed behind to protect the bridge from incoming Covenant, but Six knew that that was just code for I can't keep up with you guys, considering that the blast doors were keeping the Covenant out. Oh well.

The two Spartans approached Keyes.

"Captain." Six said.

"It's good to see you two are alive." Keyes said. "Chief." He said with an outstretched hand.

Master Chief shook it.

" Things aren't going well. Cortana did her best, but we never really had a chance." Keyes said.

Suddenly, Cortana's avatar appeared on the holotank in front of them.

"A dozen Covenant superior battleships against a single Halcyon-class light cruiser. Given those odds I'm content with three...make that four kills." She said. She then looked at Master Chief. "Sleep well?" she said to him.

"No thanks to your driving, yes." He replied.

Cortana smiled. "So you did miss me." She said.

A loud explosion shook the bridge. The Chief and Keyes both lost their balance, but Six fell into a guard rail.

"Report!" Keyes shouted.

"It must have been one of their boarding parties! I'd guess an Antimatter Charge!" Cortana yelled back.

"Ma'am! Fire control to the main cannon is offline!" a fire control officer shouted.

"Captain, the cannon was my last offensive option." Cortana said to Keyes.

"Alright then. I'm initiating Cole Protocol, Article 2. We're abandoning the Autumn. That means you too, Cortana." Keyes said.

"While you do what, go down with the ship?" She said to him.

"In a manner of speaking. The object we found, I'm going to try and land the Autumn on it." Keyes said.

"With all due respect, sir, this war has enough dead heroes."

"I appreciate your concern, Cortana, but it's not up to me. Protocol is clear. Destruction or capture of a shipboard AI is absolutely unacceptable, that means you're leaving the ship. Lock in a selection of emergency landing zones, upload them to my neural lace, and then sort yourself for a hard transfer."

"Aye aye, sir."

Cortana's avatar then disappeared.

"Which is where you two come in." Keyes said. "Get Cortana off this ship. Keep her safe from the enemy. If they capture her, they'll learn everything. Force deployment, weapons research... Earth."

"We understand." Master Chief said.

Cortana's avatar came back up again.

"The Autumn will continue evasive maneuvers until you initiate a landing sequence. Not that you'll listen, but I'd suggest letting my subroutines handle the final approach." She said.

"Excellent work, Cortana. Thank you. Are you ready?" Keyes said to her.

Cortana looked around the Pillar of Autumn's bridge. She sighed.

"Yank me." She said.

Captain Keyes pulled a data chip out of the holotank and handed it to the Master Chief, then closed his hand around it.

"Good luck, Master Chief. And take my pistol. Six already has a weapon." Keyes said.

Master Chief slid Cortana's chip into the back of his helmet and grabbed Keyes' magnum.

"Don't get any funny ideas." He said to himself.

"What?" Six said.

"I'm talking to Cortana." The Chief said.

"Oh. Alrighty then." Six said.

And with that, they began running to the escape pods.


	8. Pods

Master Chief and Six had left the bridge and Captain Keyes behind only moments ago, and they already had encountered a few Covenant. It was nothing that they couldn't handle, but that meant that there were many more than just the couple that they had killed. They were running out of time. Any minute, Covenant could come barreling through the next door, or the next one. The only marines that they had come across were dead ones.

Master Chief kneeled down at the body of a dead marine with his eyes still open. He pushed his eyelids down.

"Unlucky bastard." The Chief said. He took the marine's assault rifle and saluted him.

"Things really are going to shit, aren't they?" Six said.

"Oh yeah, they are. Let's get moving. We need to get off of the ship." The Chief said.

"What the hell?" Six said.

"What?" The Chief said back.

"I'm getting interference on my radio. Something's screwy." Six said.

"There we go. I'm patched in." Cortana said.

"Did she just hack into my radio?" Six said to Master Chief.

"Probably." The Chief said.

"Not only can we now communicate, Six, but I can see basic diagnostics and your shield level. Basically, I can tell if you or John are in danger." Cortana said.

"Handy." Six said. He looked at Master Chief. "John? That's your name?"

"Yeah. Got a problem?" The Chief said.

"No, not at all. Can I call you John? I don't feel like referring to you as a nameless faceless military man."

"Whatever you want. You're a higher rank than me anyways." John said.

As they advanced down the hall, John looked at Six.

"How about you? What's yours?"

"My what?"

"Your name. What's your name?"

"Couldn't tell ya."

"What?"

"I mean that I don't know. No clue."

"What, do you have amnesia or something?

"Yeah, something like that. I've never known my name. One of the first things that I remember was sitting in a pressure controlled living space, and I was being called B312, my Spartan number."

"That kind of sucks."

"That about sums it up, yeah."

"Well, come on, I have to call you _something_."

"Just call me Six. It's the closest thing I have to a name anyways."

"Alright then."

As they proceeded down the hallway, guns raised, they came across a trio of marines fighting off an Elite. Six raised his DMR, and, with four well placed shots, took the beast down.

"Master Chief! Lieutenant Noble Six! It is a pleasure to meet you, sirs. Thank you for your help."

"No problem." John said.

Abruptly, the Autumn was rocked by an enormous and loud explosion.

"What the hell?" Six said.

"Did something just hit us?" One of the marines said.

"Move it! Back to the airlock!" The other marines said.

"No, wait!" Six shouted.

An explosion blasted out from the airlock, likely caused by a Covenant boarding craft crashing into the ship. The explosion killed the two marines. Covenant troops then emptied into the corridor. Elites and Grunts were all firing their weapons. John and Six returned fire, and dropped several Grunts. Six pulled a grenade from his belt.

"I'm probably going to feel bad that these marines won't have an open casket funeral after this." He said, and chucked the live grenade into the crowd.

"Their faces are melted off. I don't think that they can complain." John said as the grenade's explosion rocked the corridor. "Besides, I don't think that we're going to have time for a funeral at this point.

"Well, we have to keep moving. Who knows how many more Covenant there are?" Six said.

"Right behind you." John replied.

* * *

They had been walking for only another five minutes before something else went wrong.

Lifepods were ejecting out of the Autumn, and the two Spartans could see the results. Three lifepods ejected from the ship, and they were all shot down by Covenant fire.

"The Covenant are destroying the lifepods...they really don't want us on that ring." Cortana said.

"Fuck." Six said. "This is a suicide mission."

"Just figure that out?" John replied.

"Well, shit. Alrighty, head for the blast doors." Six said.

"Warning! Blast doors closing!" Cortana yelled.

Just then, the blast doors in that room shut tight.

"Damn." John said.

"We'll have to use the ship's maintenance access ways. Follow the NAV point, it will lead you to an opening." Cortana said.

Just then, a dot appeared on Six's scanner. He was sure John saw it too, because he set off for it first. Six could still hear Keyes' voice over the intercom, shouting orders and trying to save as many lives as possible. Good man.

"I'm detecting Covenant movement outside the access ways. Activating motion tracker. Let's find a safe exit." Cortana said.

The Chief and Six approached the first door. Suddenly, red dots framed their position on the scanner.

"They're right on top of us! We need to find another way through." Cortana said.

"Quick, over here!" Six yelled. He was pointing at a particularly beaten up door.

"Perfect! If you can get rid of that door, you should have a clear path ahead! Try knocking it down, Six." Cortana said.

With a singular super-human tackle, Six rammed his shoulder directly into the busted door, busting the broken and warped metal of the blast door. It fact, he went through the door with such force that he fell on his hands and knees.

_Suddenly, he wasn't on the Autumn anymore. He was carrying his squadmate Kat away from the Covenant glassing of New Alexandria. He pulled her up. She had fallen, shot in the leg, and he had gotten down to his knees to pick her up._

"_Come on Kat, get up!" Six yelled._

"_Come on!" Carter yelled._

_She could barely stand up, so almost all of her weight was balanced on him._

_He could hear the roar of a sangheili above. And a needle rifle shot._

_The sharp, deadly crystal flew through the air with deadly accuracy and implanted itself into the back of Kat's skull. Her legs gave out under her own weight. Kat's blood sprayed out of the back of her head onto Six's helmet. Her entire body went limp and collapsed. Six held on. He tried to get her to get up. It was useless. She was dead._

_She was dead._

"_Leave her, Six! Come on!" Emile shouted at him._

_No. They'd pay for this._

_Six ran forward and pulled out his DMR. He unloaded at least two dozen shots into two dozen Elites, a bullet for each of their brains. His team was gone. He was surrounded. He was killing them by the dozen, one by one._

"_SIX!" Someone yelled._

_He turned around with his gun raised. It was…_

John.

Everything dimmed. He looked around, breathing heavily.

"It's alright. They're dead." John said.

He was back on the Autumn.

"No, no no no they can't be dead, I have to save them, no…" Six said quietly to himself.

"What are you talking about? Why save a squadron of Sangheili?" John said.

Six looked to the floor in front of him.

Corpses of Sangheili. Everywhere. Littering the floor with their unsightly remains.

"What… How…" Six whispered.

"After you busted down the door, all of these Sangheili started firing on us. You pulled me through the door and dropped me behind cover. Then you took out your rifle and… You killed ALL of them. ALL of them, Six. Now I see why you're classified as Hyper Lethal."

"Six, your heart rate is off of the charts." Cortana said.

"I'm fine. I'm okay." Six said.

"Are you sure?" John said.

"I just… Yeah. Let's get to the lifepods." Six said.

John looked at Six for a minute and wondered what Six's story was. He would have to ask him sometime. That was one of the few things that had him freaked in a very long time.

"Alright, let's go." John said.

* * *

They were finally at the lifeboats, despite the heavy resistance they had faced trying to get there since Six's episode. They ran through the corpses of Grunts and Elites as they ran to the last remaining lifeboat.

A frightened marine was thrown to the ground by a nearby explosion. "Oh no, oh no!" He said.

"Get up, soldier!" Six yelled as he picked the soldier up and leaned into his weight.

As they ran into the lifeboat, Six realized just who he was carrying. It was none other than the marine that they had met earlier, Clancy Maegan. John looked outside with the barrel of his assault rifle, checking for enemies. There were none.

"Take a seat, Maegan." Six.

Clancy was surprised that Lieutenant Noble Six had remembered his name. He felt… Important.

"Thank you, sir, so much." Clancy said.

"No problem, kid." Six said back.

"Punch it!" John yelled.

"Aye aye, Sir!" the pilot of the lifeboat yelled back.

The lifeboat launched out of the Autumn's airlock.

"We're disengaged. Goin' for minimum safe distance." The pilot said.

"We're gonna make it, aren't we, sirs? I don't wanna die out here!" Clancy said to the two Spartans.

The Chief patted him on the shoulder, giving the Clancy substantial reassurance.

"We'll be fine, Clancy." Six said.

Clancy looked out of the window.

"What is that thing, exactly?"

"Hell if I know, but we're landin' on it." The pilot said.

"The Autumn! She's been hit!" A marine shouted.

The Chief dashed to the back of the lifeboat with Six as they both stared and watched the Autumn.

"I knew it! The Autumn is accelerating, Keyes is going in manually!" Cortana said.

The Autumn was suddenly hit multiple times by Plasma Torpedoes.

"Heads up everyone, this is it! We're entering the ring's atmosphere in five!" The pilot yelled.

"Sure you wouldn't rather take a seat?" Cortana said.

"We'll be fine." John said.

The Chief gripped the sides of the lifeboat, and bended his knees. Six followed suit.

"If I still had fingers, they'd be crossed..." Cortana said.

The Bumblebee headed into the ring's atmosphere.

Luck was all they had now.


	9. Crash

Fire. Screaming. Blackness. Open eyes, then closed. Noble Six was alive. He looked up a bit, but he was slow to do it. He was aching all over. His HUD was buzzing and warping around. What had happened? All he could remember was… The crash!

_"We're coming in too fast!" Cortana had shouted._

_ The lifepod had been racing towards the ground at a lightning fast pace, trailing smoke as it went down._

_ "Damn! Air brake failure! They blew too early! I'm losin' her. Brace for impact!" The pilot shouted._

And then they had crashed into the floor of this planet.

"Chief? Six?" Cortana was saying. Six's ears were still ringing, and he could barely hear her.

Six stood up. "Cortana?" He said.

"At last! Are you alright? Can you move?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Is the Chief okay?"

"I'm sure he's fine."

"Yeah. Yeah…Ouch. I am." John said as he stood.

Six could hear groaning from outside of the ship. He walked out and gazed at the surrounding area. They were in a mountainous, forest-like terrain. The area around them was scorched, burned by the crash landing of the lifepod.

"H…Help…Me." A familiar voice said.

Six knew that voice. It was the voice of Clancy Maegan, one of the marines that were on the Lifepod with them. He was pinned under a hunk of metal from the now destroyed ship, and he was bleeding from the mouth.

"Hey, hang in there, kid." Six said to him as he attempted to lift the metal.

"Just… Leave me." Clancy said.

"No way." Six replied. "Never leave a man behind."

Six let out a grunt and lifted the giant hunk of metal upwards, holding it in place for Clancy to crawl away. Unfortunately, Clancy didn't look like he could move very much.

"Chief! A little help here?" Six groaned as John walked out of the lifepod.

John ran over to the downed marine and dragged him from the place where he was lying and propped him up against a rock.

"Thank you… Sir." Clancy said as he spit a mouthful of saliva and blood onto the grass.

"You going to be alright, soldier?" John said to Clancy.

"Yeah, I… I think…So." Clancy said.

"Can you walk?" Six said as he walked over to John and Clancy.

Clancy stood first on one leg, then shifted his weight to both. He was surprisingly tough, Six thought. Remarkably, even.

"Is anyone else still alive, Cortana?" John said.

"No. "The others… The impact. There's nothing we can do." She replied.

"Damn." Six said. "Clancy, grab a weapon and get moving."

"I don't know if… I can keep up with you guys." Clancy replied.

"Then I'll carry you, damnit. I'm not leaving you behind if you have a chance at surviving. I'm not letting it happen again." Six shot back.

"Letting what happen again, Six?" John said.

There was a brief pause.

"Never mind. It isn't important" He replied.

"Alright. Let's get a move on." John said.

Before they had even got yards from the area, Cortana started getting bad readings.

"Warning! I've detected multiple Covenant drop ships on approach. I recommend moving into those hills. If we're lucky, the Covenant will believe that everyone aboard this lifeboat died in the crash." She said.

"Good plan, Cortana." John said.

They ran into the forest, Clancy speedwalking behind them.

"You sure you don't want me to carry you or something? You look pale." Six said.

"I'm fine. The bleeding stopped. I'll be okay in a few minutes." Clancy replied.

A few minutes passed. He looked a little bit better, but not by much.

"Clancy, I'm only gonna ask this one more time, are you sure that…" Six said as he trailed off.

Clancy wasn't there.

"John. Where the fuck did Clancy go?" Six said.

"I don't know. I thought he was behind us." John replied.

Suddenly, they could hear the sound of a creature making deep, throaty noises.

"Shit, that's gotta be a Sangheili." Six said.

"Maybe. Come on, let's go check it out." John said.

They approached the noise as it changed from louder to quitter. Deep, throaty noises. They burst out of the covering of the trees. They located the source of the throaty roars.

It was Clancy, puking in a lake.

They lowered their weapons.

"Jesus, Clancy. We thought you got snatched." John said.

"No… I just didn't want to…"

He retched.

"… Puke on your expensive boots." He said with a slight grin.

John chuckled.

Six sighed. "Get moving, Clancy."

"Sir, yes sir." Clancy replied.

They walked through a canyon, and approached a hill.

"I'm reading a lifeboat beacon over the next hill. We should check to see if there are any survivors." Cortana said.

"That would be a nice surprise." Six said.

They hit the top of the hill, and nearby they saw a group of marines. They approached them. At least they weren't the only survivors. Among them was Avery Johnson.

"Good to see you, sir! Welcome to the party!" One of the marines said.

Johnson turned to the Spartans and saluted.

"It's a mess. We're scattered all over this valley. We called for evac, but until you showed up, I thought we were cooked." He said.

"Don't worry, Sergeant. We'll stay here until evac arrives." Cortana said. Six guessed that she had the ability to speak aloud. That confused him, as then she wouldn't have needed to hack his suit…

_Ah, screw it._ He thought to himself.

Six's radio crackled to life.

"Heads up! I got a Covenant drop ship headin' in, over here!" A marine said over the radio.

Six could see it. A Covenant Phantom was approaching them at a fast pace. It parked itself directly above them and started firing its plasma cannon. A bolt went flying directly towards Johnson, and he didn't notice until a few seconds before it had almost hit him. Clancy tackled the Sergeant Major out of the way before he got hit.

Johnson looked directly at Clancy and saluted him. Clancy nodded and started unloading on Covenant soldiers. An RPG round flew through the air and struck the engine of the phantom, causing it to lose control. The Phantom's occupants jumped from the dropship and prepared to attack.

Several more dropships were approaching as the two Spartans and the group of marines took out Grunt after Grunt, Elites, and Jackals. They were outnumbered at least 5 to 1, but they wouldn't go down without a fight. The Phantoms that had been approaching were now right on top of them, too, shooting plasma and dropping more Covenant it to kill them. John had picked up a shotgun and was killing Elites by the score. Clancy and a few other marines thought that it would be a good idea to dual wield Assault Rifles and take down the Covenant twice as fast. Six liked that idea. He took his DMR and a Magnum and started unloading on Covenant, dropping them quickly. Bullets, grenades and plasma were all flying through the air, as were the corpses of a few unlucky Grunts. There were only a few more Elites, and after they were defeated, the area was clear.

"This is Pelican Echo 419. Anybody read me? Repeat: any UNSC personnel, respond." A marine's voice said over the radio.

Johnson spoke into his radio. "Roger, Echo 419. This is Fire Team Charlie. We read you. Is that you, Foehammer?"

"Roger, Fire Team Charlie. Good to hear from ya!" Foehammer responded.

"If you're not too busy, Foehammer, we could use a lift. We have survivors to transport to the Command Shuttle." Johnson said.

"I'm on my way." Foehammer said back.

"Look, more lifeboats! They're coming in fast. If those lifeboats make it down, the Covenant are going to be right on top of them." Cortana said.

She started communicating with Foehammer. "Foehammer, we need you to disengage your Warthog. John-117 and I are going to see if we can save some soldiers." She said.

"Roger, Cortana. Okay, Charlie Team, Warthog deployed. Saddle up and give 'em hell!" Foehammer yelled.

"Roger, Foehammer. Stand by to evac survivors and transport them to safety." Cortana said.

"That's affirmative. Echo 419 staying on station. Foehammer out." Foehammer said. The radio transmission ended.

Cortana contacted Johnson's radio. "John-117 and I need some backup, can you spare a few men?" She said.

"Sure, Cortana. All right ladies, volunteers step up on the double! The rest of you, get to the drop ship." Johnson said.

Six and the chief got into the warthog. It was time kick some covenant ass.


	10. Burial

The warthog caught a bit of air, then landed. Six and John were heading out to look for other survivors from the Autumn, and so far, their search had come up with nothing.

"Hold on. Stop." Six said.

John slammed the breaks and turned his head a bit in Six's direction. "What? What do you see?"

"There's a cave. Over there." He said as he pointed off into the distance.

"That cave is not a natural formation." Cortana said. "Someone built it, so it must lead somewhere."

"Alright, let's go there." John said.

"What're you tellin' me for? You're the one driving." Six said.

"Oh, shut up." John said.

Six chuckled for a little bit, then grabbed the handles of the warthog mounted Minigun. John pushed the gas pedal and they drove towards the cave.

When they got there, they were welcomed by silence.

It was too quiet.

"I've hacked into the Covenant battlenet. They're actually broadcasting tactical data on unencrypted channels!" Cortana said. " We should show them who they're dealing with. Master Chief, I'm going to use your suit's transponder system to monitor their chatter."

"Hey, Cortana, link me up, too." Six said.

"Will do, Six." Cortana said.

They walked around the cave for a while, looking for any signs of sentient life. There were none.

"Hey, Six! Come look at this!" John shouted.

Six ran over to John and was greeted by a spectacular view of a large cavern, with a chasm dividing the floor into two halves. It was a nice sight.

"Do you think that we can cross this thing?" Six said.

"Maybe we could—" John was cut off by the roar of a Sangheili.

Covenant, everywhere, surrounding them on all sides. Elites, Grunts and Jackals all around.

"Get down!" John yelled.

Six slammed his body to the floor behind a boulder.

Six could hear the sounds of Covenant weapons going off from behind cover. He popped up. Took a shot. Went back down again. He popped up a few seconds later and shot a few rounds at a couple of Grunts. Suddenly, a shout from behind by a high pitched voice startled him. He whipped around and saw a Grunt running right at him with two plasma grenades it its hands.

"Oh, shit!" Six said as he dodged the first grenade.

Instead of throwing the second grenade, however, the Grunt decided that he would take Six down with him, and jumped on Six's back. He tried to plant it on Six's neck, but missed and dropped it to the floor as Six was trying to shake him. Six threw the Grunt on the ground in front of him, directly on top of the plasma grenade, and dove away from the explosion backwards, having no time to turn around and run.

"You okay?" John said.

"Yeah, I'm good. Just… Just fine." Six replied over the sound of gunfire.

There were more Covenant approaching from Six's side, maybe a dozen elites and a handful of jackals. He pulled his DMR up and aimed down the scope. Then he fired three bullets, going into the neck of a Jackal, the skull of an Elite, and the chest of another Jackal. He unloaded the rest of his clip with extreme precision, killing Covenant with every bullet in his clip.

"How's your side!?" Six yelled

"Working on it!" John replied.

It took them nearly fifteen more minutes before the rest of the Covenant in the cave were killed. Both John and Six had resorted to Covenant weaponry, as their own was depleted. After picking up a new clip for his Carbine, Six turned around to face the monstrous chasm. Hundreds of feet deep, and no visible way to cross. Naturally.

"Hmm…" John grunted.

"There must be some mechanism to cross this cavern. Look for a control panel or switch." Cortana said.

"Aright, let's get searching then." John said.

Within a short period of time, John had found a control panel.

"Hey, Six! Found something." John said.

"Is it a switch or anything? Does it turn something on?" Six replied as he climbed up to the balcony that John was currently on.

"I don't know, I haven't pressed it yet." John replied.

Six gave John an _are you serious_ look, then pushed the button on the control panel. The button activated a series of four giant silver beam-generating bridges that extended across the chasm, forming a surface made of hard light. It was a nice sight, but they didn't exactly have time for sightseeing.

"Let's cross this thing." Six said.

"Right behind you." John said.

They crossed the hard light bridge one their warthog and navigated through a few tunnels. Six's radio crackled to life.

"New traffic on the Covenant Battlenet... a lot more crew made it off the Autumn than I had predicted - the Captain really gave them hell! If we can find Captain Keyes and other survivors, we have a chance to coordinate an effective resistance." Cortana said.

"And then. Hopefully, we can keep the Covenant's hands off of Halo." Six said.

"Exactly." Cortana responded.

They arrived at the exit of the cave and were greeted by nearly the same terrain as before. Grassy, green earth, tall trees, and tremendous mountainsides. But there was something different. Six couldn't put a finger on it. Then, he spotted it. Shadowy smoke wafting into the air off in the distance. Six guessed that John saw it too, because he pointed it out first.

"Look over there. Smoke. It might be from one of the lifeboats." He said.

"Maybe. Let's check it out." Six said.

And with that, they drove towards the smoke.

* * *

Clancy's feet were getting tired. Any moment he felt like he might collapse. The wound on his hip he got from the crash had reopened, and he had to get it gauzed up to stop the bleeding. He wished someone could take his place, but there weren't exactly soldiers lined up and ready. They were short on men when they crashed, and Clancy was hoping that Six and John weren't food for the wildlife. They were probably fine. They were Spartans. They were unstoppable. New tears filled his eyes.

The same couldn't be said about Abigail.

His sister had boarded one of the lifeboats and made a crash landing on the planet as well. While Six and John were out searching for survivors, a small group of marines were, too. They had come across a crashed lifeboat nearby their campsite. Clancy was looking for survivors, and he came across her. Her face was charred, burned. One of her legs was gone. Her knuckles were worn and bloody. But the worst part of it all was that he was the one who had to find her. He had stood there, just looking at her. Her featured were marred and dirty, and her uniform was torn where her leg was severed.

And then, another marine found her leg. He had no idea whose leg it was, but he was making a joke about it, the insensitive prick. Something about wanting to "meet" with the "hottie" who used to own the leg. Rage filled his being, and he had tackled the soldier and beaten the shit out of him. Knocked his helmet off. The guy was scared and confused, and he had a bloody nose. Clancy had gotten off of him and looked at his hands.

They looked just like his sister's. Bloody and beaten.

"Why the fuck did you do that?!" the marine had shouted, scared out of his mind.

Clancy looked at the marine with the coldest stare that he could possibly make. He grabbed the marine by the vest and rammed him into the side of the lifeboat with the strength of a Spartan as the lower down soldiers watched with fear.

"THAT LEG IS MY SISTER'S! YOU FUCKING SCUMBAG!" Clancy boomed into the frightened marine's face.

He lost control of his hands and just let go. The marine slid down the side of the lifeboat like a ragdoll and looked with guilty eyes as Clancy looked at his hands, put them in his face, and cried. It was a soft cry, hard to hear, but you could tell he was crying. After a bout of staring from the other marines, Clancy walked over to the disconnected leg that was once Abigail's, picked it up, and went inside of the lifeboat. The other soldiers watched as Clancy came out of the lifeboat with his sister's body and her leg, dug a shallow grave with his knife and his hands, and buried his sister. As he was about to put the final few handfuls of dirt covering her face, he looked at her for the last time. He looked at her pretty hazel eyes and closed the lids.

"Goodbye…" He said in a sad whisper to himself.

He covered his sister's face up with the soft earth and took a couple of sticks, tying them together with a long, narrow leaf, and stuck it at the head of the dirt, marking her grave. He sat down in front of the grave and just looked at it.

No one but the few marines knew, and they were all obligated to not tell anyone, as they were all lower ranks than he, and Clancy had told them to never speak of it.

When the other marines got back to the campsite, the one Clancy beat up said that he tripped on a rock.

The others said the same.

* * *

**Sorry to end this chapter on a sad note.**

**To those who believe that Clancy will die, don't worry, he isn't going to. I'm planning on making him into a bigger character, and a stronger one, too.**

**Keep reading, dudes and gals.**

**~Husky**


	11. Plans

"Run! RUN!" Six was yelling. John was sprinting right behind him, and a handful of marines were following the two. And behind _them_ was a LEGION of Covenant. When Six and John had sought out the source of the smoke, they had stumbled across a lifeboat with a few survivors. Over the next hour or so, they found two more lifeboats, each with a couple of marines. When they reached the third lifeboat, however, they gathered the attention of a squad of Sangheili, and they soon alerted an entire fighting force of the Spartans' presence. Now they were being hunted.

The only good news that came out of this search, minus the dozen marines that they found, was that Cortana figured out that the Covenant had secured the Pillar of Autumn. Of course, the only good thing about this was that Captain Keyes was still alive. The bad news was that the Covenant had captured the entire command crew. Not exactly the best trade off, but that was the closest to good news that anyone had gotten since the crash landing.

One of the marines tripped and fell to the ground, then disappeared into the horde. He was dead, surely. What a terrible way to go.

"New traffic on the Covenant battlenet." Cortana suddenly said. "I've found Captain Keyes! He's being held on a Covenant cruiser, the _Truth and Reconciliation_, a ship I disabled before we abandoned the Autumn."

"Any idea where this thing is?!" Six said as he ran.

"The _Truth and Reconciliation_ touched down on a desert plateau roughly three hundred kilometers up-spin." Cortana replied.

"Fantastic. We can get _there_ in no time!" Six said sarcastically.

John looked behind them. The horde was still running, but not in the group of 6 or so dozen that they were before.

"The bulk of the Covenant are retreating!" John yelled.

Six looked behind him to see how many were left. Not nearly as many as before.

A marine pulled out his Battle Rifle and shot as he ran. He killed an Elite, then turned and kept running.

"Good shot, kid!" Six yelled back, and he turned his head forwards and kept running. As soon as he turned his head, Six nearly tripped over a log, but he jumped it and kept moving.

Echo 419, AKA Foehammer, was getting ready to pick up the Spartans and the soldiers. It landed at least twenty yards in front of them, and opened its back so everyone could get in.

"There's our ride! Get aboard, and let's get out of here!" Cortana said.

"Way ahead of you." John said. "C'mon everyone!"

Every soldier in the camp, including Clancy Maegan, ran to the back of the ship. Every one of the two dozen-ish marines fit into the ship, though it took some squeezing in.

"We should move out, Lieutenant. And then we'll need your help on our rescue mission." Cortana said.

"You got it, ma'am." Foehammer said.

And with that, they took off for the _Truth and Reconciliation_, to save Captain Keyes.

* * *

_A few hours later…_

"The enemy has captured Captain Keyes, and are holding him aboard one of their cruisers, the Truth and Reconciliation. The ship is currently holding position approximately three hundred meters above the other end of this plateau." Cortana said.

"So how do we get inside the ship if it's in the air?" Clancy said. "The Corps issued me a rifle, not wings."

"There's a Gravity Lift that ferries troops and supplies between the ship and the surface. That's our ticket in." A soldier, Staff Sergeant Parker, said.

Foehammer touched down, and Cortana continued her briefing.

"Once we get inside the ship, I should be able to lock on to the tracking signal from Captain Keyes' neural implants." She said.

"Everybody out!" A marine said.

"Hit it Marines, go go go!" The Staff Sergeant said. "The Corps ain't payin' us by the hour!"

A group of marines, Six and John got off of the ship. Among the marines was Clancy.

Six chuckled to himself. "You know, everywhere we are, you seem to follow. One hell of a coincidence."

"Sure is, sir." Clancy said as he wrapped his worn and bloody knuckles around his assault rifle.

"Your surname is Maegan, right?" Six asked Clancy.

"Yes sir, it most certainly is." Clancy replied.

"That name is familiar. Did you have any family on the Autumn, Clancy?" Six asked.

"Um… Y…Yes sir. My sister." Clancy replied with his voice coated in new sorrow.

Six didn't notice the tone of his voice. "Where is she now, Clancy? Do you know?"

"Yeah." Clancy said.

"Where?" Six replied.

Clancy paused.

"She's dead." He said.

Six immediately tried to comfort him. He took off his helmet and looked at Clancy.

"I'm sorry, Clancy." He said as he put a hand on his shoulder.

Clancy shrugged it off. "I'm fine, don't worry about me."

"Trust me, I know what it's like to—"

"You don't. You'll never know. You're lucky." Clancy replied.

"I do, and I'm NOT. I've lost everyone I've ever cared about. My entire squad was killed one by one, and it's my fault. I could have saved every one of them, but I didn't. Don't put your sister's blood on your hands. It was those ugly bug motherfuckers, not you."

Clancy sighed. He looked Six in the face.

"Then don't blame yourself for all of your loss. My sister's death WAS my fault. I could have been there with her in that lifeboat, I could have saved her." He said.

"And died along with her? Get your head out of your ass, Corporal. You're here now, and you are one goddamn tough sonofabitch. Get through it. I did." Six told him.

Clancy looked at Six, sighed again, and looked forward. He had a point.

"I'll try." He said.

"Good." Six said back.

The squad was getting close to the _Truth and Reconciliation_, and the surrounding area was swarming with Covenant. Elites, Grunts, Jackals and Hunters all over the place.

"Stick to the higher ground on the right. We should be able to recon the Covenant position without being spotted. I'm detecting Covenant Stationary Guns near the next pass. I recommend using your Sniper Rifle to take out the gunners while I call for Marine support." Cortana said.

She started communicating over the radio to Staff Sergeant Parker.

"Get ready to move in to support us, Sergeant. Lieutenant Noble Six is going to covertly take out as many of the Covenant as he can. He has the most experienced stealth training out of anyone here, so don't open fire until you hear the enemy return fire on us. That should let us keep the element of surprise." She said.

Six was ready for just about anything at this point. But deep down, in his gut, he knew for an absolute fact that this was going to get really ugly.

And quickly.

* * *

**Sorry for the short-ish chapter this time, didn't have enough time as the school year is coming to a close. I swear, pulling my grade up in math is about as easy as debeaching a whale with a shotgun.**

**Six gave Clancy a little bit of hope, so that's good.**

**I'm thinking, If people like THIS fanfic, I wonder how I would do with another? If anyone in the comments has any ideas or stories that they'd like to see, I'd be happy to oblige. A specific rule though;**

**NO MY LITTLE PONY. EVER.**

**Keep reading, dudes and gals!**

**~Husky**


	12. Pain

It was the peak of night, the moon directly above Six's head. He was laying in the tall grass, perched on a cliff nearby the _Truth and Reconciliation_. He was looking outwards at the hordes of Covenant ahead of him, and at the enourmous CSS BattleCruiser itself. There were dozens of dozens of Covenant ahead of him, hundreds at least. A ship that large DID command for a large crew. Six's only worry was how he was supposed to get to Captain Keyes and the rest of the _Pillar of Autumn_'s crew without being seen. He would have to be perfectly silent.

And he had the perfect way to do it.

Before he left, he asked a few marines if they could spare an extra canteen. One soldier actually did have a second unused canteen, and handed it to Six. The Sniper Rifle that they had given him didn't have a silencer, so he used that extra canteen, and some good old-fashioned duct tape, to make a makeshift silencer for himself. He fired a shot into the ground before he left. It worked perfectly.

The marine who had given him the canteen called him a genius.

He looked through the scope of the Sniper. He never did feel comfortable with one of these things, no matter how much he trained with it. The first time he ever held one, it recoiled into his face and almost broke his nose.

He could see a lot of Covenant from afar, but up close, it looked like there was more than he thought. Groups of Elites carrying ammo crates, and grunts sleeping, like they always did. He was lucky that he was far away, in the night, and camouflaged, otherwise, the brigade of Jackals would most definitely have seen him.

This situation reminded him a lot of Jun.

Six moved up, crouched so he wouldn't be seen by Covenant patrols.

He had always hated Covenant, but up close, they were just plain nasty. Their grotesque features and wrinkled skin always had the effect of giving him goose bumps, no matter how warm it was. He unsheathed his brand-new, carbon fiber blade for the first time whilst hiding in the grass, playing with the handle of the knife, spinning the blade around until he grew bored, assessing his situation and trying to come up with a legitimate plan that wouldn't get him killed. He held the knife blade down, so he could plunge the knife into someone's neck.

_Okay… stick to the shadows, and be fucking quiet this time. This can't go like when Jun got… killed._

A singular Elite was straying towards him. He sidestepped around it in total silence, snuck up behind it, and grabbed the back of its neck, forcing his blade up into the Sangheili's neck. It made a gurgling noise, spouted purple blood from its windpipe, then collapsed, dead.

This routine went on for another twenty or so minutes and had many close calls. Six hid the bodies in places covered in shadow, and in the tall grass so he could avoid detection. That was the last thing he needed.

Another ten minutes passed. So far, he had killed maybe a few dozen Covenant, including a few Grunts who decided to take a nap while on patrol. But there was one thing that Six didn't quite understand. He had been out here for a half an hour, and still no one had noticed his handiwork. He could have sworn there should have been a few who noticed their comrades gone. He pushed the thought out of his mind. He went back to work.

Nine kills and a lucky escape or two later, Six was getting close to the Battlecruiser. He was sure that the guards on the _Truth and Reconciliation_ were better at their jobs than the ones out here.

Six felt a hand grab his thigh. He whipped around. A Sangheili had snatched the magnum he was carrying in his side holster. He aimed it the air and fired it, alerting the whole base. Six was amazed that anyone, human or not, had snuck up on him. He had no time to marvel, however, as this now posed a giant problem, that problem being about one hundred and sixty assorted Covenant heading in his tackled the Elite and snatched the magnum out of his hand, pressed the magnum to its temple, then pulled the trigger, spilling Sangheili blood and brains onto the grass. Six could hear Jackals and more Sangheili roaring, ready for battle. But behind him, he could hear something just as terrifying.

The only difference being that it didn't want to shoot him.

Marines started pouring over the hill, assault rifles firing next to assorted weapons and grenades. At the head of the crowd, leading the, was the Master Chief, or, as Six had grown accustomed to calling him, John. Six admired the other Spartan for his seriousness and his dry sense of humor. In that way, the two were a lot alike.

"Let 'em have it!" A marine yelled.

Through the gunfire, Six saw a Grunt running towards a shade turret. Not good. He pulled out his DMR and fired on the Grunt. The cover of night made it hard to see where he was shooting, but then he remembered that his helmet had a night vision feature. He turned it on and landed an immediate headshot on the Grunt. He ran with the speed of a cheetah to the turret and mounted it, firing upon the Covenant with their own weapons.

A majority of the Covenant around the _Truth_ were simply corpses now, and the few who knew what would happen if they stuck around ran for their lives. Six dismounted the shade turret and ran to John.

"Hey." John said to him. "How many did you get with that thing?" John asked, pointing to Six's blood-drenched combat knife.

"Eh. A few dozen. I could have done better." Six replied.

"Jesus, that's a lot. I'm experienced in stealth ops, but I'm not that good." John said.

"That's because I'm better at this than you are." Six shot back with a sideways smile.

"Oh, hush." John said back with a grin.

Six chucked and looked at John. "Come on. We have to keep up with the others, pick it up." He said.

"Alright. Will do, sir." John said.

Six groaned. He hated it when people called him sir, and John knew it. It made him feel old.

It was John's turn to laugh. They picked up the pace a bit and set off towards the battlecruiser.

* * *

Clancy had gunned down a few Covenant in the firefight, and it made him feel a little bit better. Who knew shooting killer aliens was such great stress relief? He had thought about what Lieutenant Noble Six had said earlier that night, about his sister's death not being his fault. He realized how quick he was to blame himself for what had happened, but he felt like he was responsible for her. They were almost inseparable since she was born, and to lose her now and the way he did was a heartbreaking and terrifying thing.

Clancy spotted Six in the crowd of at-the-ready marines, talking to the Master Chief. He approached them. Six was laughing about something the Chief had said, so Clancy decided that this was a good enough time as any to initiate conversation.

"Hi, sirs. What're you laughing about?" Clancy said.

"Hmm? Oh, hey Clancy. John was just telling me a joke. Want to hear it?" Six said.

"Uh, sure." Clancy said.

John looked at Clancy. "What do you call a Sangheili on a unicycle?"

Clancy thought for a moment. "I'm not sure, sir."

Six was cracking up. "A Sangwheelie!" he said loudly, then proceeded to bust out laughing.

Clancy laughed, too. "You know, now that humor is pretty much void around here, I can understand why you'd laugh at that." He said.

"Well, stupid puns have made me crack up since I first heard 'em." Six said. "What can I say? I have a stupid sense of humor."

Just then, a fresh horde of Covenant dropped down from the battlecruiser's gravity lift, causing jubout every single soldier within a hundred feet to draw their guns.

"Covenant forces sighted!" Staff Sergeant Parker shouted. "Let's hit 'em, Charlie team!"

Everyone opened fire at once, both humans and Covenant

Clancy raised his gun and started to fire.

* * *

Six was firing madly, hitting every Covenant he laid eyes on, dropping them like stones. He emptied clips into oncoming Covenant, killing them by the score. One shot, two shots, four, six, ten, all headshots or vital hits.

And then came the grenade.

He had no idea where it had come from, but a plasma grenade was flying through the air, and it looked like it was heading straight for John and a few other marines.

He ran as fast as he could to John, four yards to the left of him, to warn him, but there was no time. He took a leap, and stopped the grenade from making contact with the soldiers. But there was only one problem.

It stuck to him, instead.

The now live plasma grenade was stuck on his hand, and about three seconds from exploding

"SON OF A BI—" Six shouted, but was cut off from the explosion and the nerve-wracking pain that was shooting up his arm.

"SIX!" John yelled as he tried to put together what had just happened. He ran over to him.

Six had just saved his life.

Six lay there on the grass screaming. He tried to take off his helmet, but he couldn't. He looked at his hand, and figured out why.

His entire arm, fingers to shoulder, wasn't there.

"AGHHH! SON OF A… BITCH! AGH!" Six screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Just hang on!" He yelled. "MEDIC?! IS THERE A MEDIC ANYWHERE?!"

"Six, I've lost vitals for your left arm! What the hell happened?!" Cortana said worriedly.

"Cortana, his arm is fucking gone!"

"Jesus…" Clancy said as he looked at where Six's arm used to be.

A medic ran up to Six and started cauterizing the wound with an engineer's blowtorch

Six passed out from the pain.

* * *

**Sorry, I don't really have enought time to say much today, but keep reading, dudes and dudettes!**

**~Husky**


	13. Awake

_Falling. Through the sky, he fell, weightless. In the orbit of a human planet, Spartan Noble Six was sinking through space. He looked ahead of him. The Covenant Corvette was flying above, and he was floating away. Jorge had thrown him out of the ship so he could manually detonate the slipspace bomb they had brought aboard. Six looked at his hand. Jorge's dogtags were in his clenched fist. The bomb detonated. Six looked up. An enormous void consumed the Corvette, and its entire midsection, along with Jorge, was disintegrated._

_ Jorge's last words rang in Six's ears._

_ "Tell 'em to make it count." He had said._

Six woke up with a shock. His armor was gone. He was wearing the thick black bodysuit of his Mark V armor, but it was opened up. Several suction cups, needles, and straps were connected to him. He tried to lift his arm, but he couldn't, for some reason. He looked down at his left arm.

It wasn't his. There were metal pieces and joints, screws and bolts. There were wires and pipes and little metal washers and all sorts of other technology that he didn't know the names for. It looked a bit like Kat's robotic arm, but it was thicker, and looked stronger. He tried to lift it again. Nothing.

He had forgotten what had happened. He tried to recall the events before he was here, wherever this was. There was a grenade, and he had tried to… No. He HAD saved John. And the grenade had blown his arm off…

And now he was here.

"Hello? Anyone…?" Six said with a hoarse voice.

Only silence greeted him.

"Great." He mumbled to himself.

A machine to his right made a ticking noise, and a few others beeped. He felt a cold sensation in his chest, where one of the needles was. His eyes started to close, but not before he caught a glimpse of a few marines outside. At least there were humans.

He blacked out.

* * *

He woke up later, what he assumed to have been at least a few hours. He looked back down at his body. The bodysuit was now closed, and his armor was back on him. The left shoulder was disintegrated. There was nothing keeping him from getting out of bed now, except for the blanket that was over his lower abdomen. He pulled the blanket down and sat upright. He used both arms, and nearly fell off of the bed trying to get up. His muscles felt so weak. He tried to stand. He couldn't. He tried again. He stood with one foot, then shifted his weight to both. He had trouble standing. He had never felt this much pain in his life, next to when his arm was actually blown off. He shuffled over to one of the pieces of medical equipment and leaned on it. His vision was a little blurry. He rubbed his eyes. His vision cleared. He made the mistake of trying to push himself up with his now fully operational prosthetic. The strength of the arm was almost enough to push him to the floor. For some reason he thought that it would be a struggle. He walked slowly to the opening of his tent and pushed through it.

` Several Marines stood up and saluted him. One of these marines was, predictably, Clancy Maegan.

Six saluted the marines back and kneeled down to catch his breath.

"Where am I?" Six asked.

"You're still with us, if that's what you're asking." Clancy said to him as he walked towards him. "Good to see you're okay, sir."

"You too, Clancy." Six said as he patted him on the back with his new arm.

"Ouch. You pat hard." Clancy said.

"Sorry. Where's the Master Chief? More importantly, where's my helmet?" Six said jokingly.

"They put your helmet right here there." Clancy said as he grabbed Six's helmet that lay next to the entrance of the tent. "As for the Chief, he's headed out on another mission."

"How long was I out?" Six asked as they walked.

"I dunno, maybe… five, six hours."

"Six hours? Goddamn. I miss anything?"

"Cortana found something big. Something called the "Silent Cartographer""

"What the hell is that supposed to be, then?"

"Apparently, it's some sort of map room on Halo."

"Anyone figure out what this 'Halo' is?"

"Well, if the Covenant harness its power, they can use it as a weapon."

"Then we can't let them get their hands on it. I'm going to see what I can do about helping John on his little mission."

"But, sir!" Clancy said. "You should probably get some more rest. After all, you did just get your arm vaporized, and, well…"

"Well what?" Six replied.

"No offense sir, but you're weak right now. You need to get your strength up." Clancy said.

Six chuckled. "No rest for the wicked, Maegan." He shot back.

Six snatched the helmet out of Clancy's hand and jogged slowly towards a pelican, ready for combat mentally, but not physically. His suit was helping him carry himself a bit, and he was less sore, but not nearly combat ready. Six didn't care though. If he thought he was ready, then he was, end of story.

He was a stubborn bastard that way.

* * *

**Sorry for the SUPER short chapter this time. I'm getting friendly complaints that I don't write enough per chapter, so I will try to improve how long each of my chapters from now on will be, hopefully getting them to be around 2,000 words or so.**

**For Sly Cooper fans:**

**I'm going to be making a Sly fanfic at some point in the near future as a side thing. I have a feeling that it might be fun, as I am very well acquainted with the Sly universe and it would be fun to play with.**

**I'm contemplating trying to fit a few changes to the story in the next couple of chapters, but I'm a little unsure if I can pull it off in style, as I don't really know as much about the Halo universe as I used to.**

**Another side note, this fanfic WILL be going from Halo: CE to whatever the newest Halo is when I'm done, be it Halo 4 or Halo 5: Guardians, which sounds and looks goddamn great. I hope that the love that some people have for my writing has enough staying power for quite a long time, and it wouldmake me very happy if it did.**

**Keep reading, dudes and dudettes!**

**~Husky**


	14. Reunion

Locked in battle for what felt like hours, John-117 had just been fighting his way to the Silent Cartographer, the map room that, if followed correctly, could lead humanity to the Halo's controls before the Covenant got their hands on them. He was fighting two Hunters at the same time, supported by several Grunts and Jackals. He wasn't having a hard time, exactly, but he wished that he had some help. Just then, he wondered how Six was doing. He might be dead, or alive, or somewhere in between. He really had no way of knowing. He popped up from cover. He fired his last clip of assault rifle ammo into the neck of the first Hunter, stunning it momentarily but not killing it. All he had left was a magnum, and a few grenades. He could kill at least one of the Hunters, but what about the other one? Hit it in the face? He needed a plan, and he wasn't exactly overflowing with those at the moment.

"I got your back!" Someone shouted from behind him. He whipped around and looked to find the source of the voice. He heard mechanical whirring as the figure lifted his arm and fired at the Hunter with a magnum. The Hunters looked directly at him and fired plasma blasts from their arm cannons. The figure ducked and rolled, then ran towards the first Hunter full speed. It tried to hit him with an uppercut with its arm shield, but the figure just used it as a springboard, effectively launching him into the air in a massive jump. He came down with such force that his hand went clean through the soft tissue of the Hunter's face, killing it lightning fast.

"I guess hitting it does work." John said under his breath.

He vaulted over his cover and ran at the second Hunter, tossing a grenade behind it's shield. It curled up to protect itself, but it was a futile attempt, as the grenade exploded against the slimy and soft flesh of its abdomen, stunning it. John took this opportunity to attack. He ran up to the now dazed hunter and full force kicked it with the power of both legs, knocking it flat. He jumped on it while it was down and cut its throat with his combat knife, ending the fight.

John stood up and looked at the figure.

"Hey, buddy." Six said.

John stared for a moment, then he smiled under his helmet. "Back already, I see… Is that a—"

"Robot arm. Oh yeah. I have no clue how they put together a prosthetic so quickly, but considering that I'm one of the only Spartans with a known location, I'm assuming they took no chances.

"Shouldn't you be resting or something?" John said. "Your arm got blown off like, what, not even twelve hours ago?"

"Eight hours. And I'm fine. I'm just a little sore is all." Six shot back.

"Okay. I'm just saying—"

"I get it, John."

Six's radio turned on. It was Cortana."I'm glad to see you're still with us, Noble Six." She said.

"So am I, Cortana." Six said back. "What're we trying to find, exactly? I was a bit… Late to the party."

"Well, the Covenant believe that what they call the "Silent Cartographer" is somewhere under this island. The Cartographer is a map room that will lead us to Halo's control center. The island has multiple structures and installations. One of them contains the map room, and it's our job to find it. If we don't…"

"The Covenant will control Halo." John finished for her.

"Yikes. I'm not letting that happen." Six said. "Where are we right now?"

""This isn't the map room. Analyzing..."

There was a brief pause.

"This is a security override station for the main facility, located somewhere else on this island. Shut the system down so the Covenant won't be able to lock us out." Cortana said.

"You got it." Six said. "I'll be right back."

A few minutes late, after figuring how to shut down the security, Six returned to the security override station. A new door had opened in the room.

"So I guess we're going through there, huh?" Six said.

"Seems so." John said.

"Alright then. Let's get moving." Six said.

* * *

The two Spartans were walking down the newly opened hallway, and so far had encountered no resistance. It was quiet.

"I don't like this at all. It's too quiet." Six said.

"Me neither." John said.

Suddenly, the two Spartans' radios crackled.

"Mayday, mayday! Dropship Bravo 022 taking enemy fire! Repeat! We are under heavy fire and are losing altitude!"

"Understood. We're on our way." Cortana said. "Move it, you two!"

They ran towards Bravo 022's location, but Six stopped after about ten feet. John stopped too, and looked back at Six.

"What?" John said.

Six's metallic had slid towards his hip a little.

"DUCK!"

John complied and crouched quickly. Out of nowhere, an energy sword appeared where John's neck was. Six drew his magnum and fired a shot at what seemed to be nothing. The form of an energized shield appeared, and a Sangheilli body materialized behind John.

"They're using stealth! Be careful!" Six yelled as he fired more shots.

John drew his assault rifle and fired at the now not-so-invisible Sangheilli. It roared and tried to slice john horizontally across the stomach. John moved his abdomen all the way back and curved himself to avoid it, then grabbed the Elite's arm, ripped the sword from its hand, and shoved it directly into its chest. It hit the ground with a cry as more Sangheilli took its place. At least four other stealth Sangheilli had materialized nearby, and they were combat ready. Six ran towards one of them, and with a high-powered robotic punch, he smashed his prosthetic hand directly through the Elite's shield, armor, skin, and bones, coming out the other side with a bloody explosion of Sangheilli guts and gore. He lifted the Elite with his one arm and tossed the now corpse at the others. They roared and started firing. John bolted towards them, having no other choice due to the confinement of the hallway. He ripped the knife from his belt and dual wielded it with his energy sword. He sliced at a nearby Sangheilli, but it dodged the attack and tried to hit him in the face, also missing. He faked it out by pretending to slice at it, causing it to lose its balance, then stepped on the side of its knee, breaking its leg and bringing it to the floor. With a sickening spurt of purple blood, John plunged the combat knife into the Sangheilli's forehead, killing it instantly. He turned. Six was occupied with the other two Sangheilli at the moment, so John turned, believing that Six was perfectly fine. Mid turn, he was batted into the wall by a Sangheilli general, bringing his shields down low. He got up and engaged in combat with the General. In the meantime, Six was blocking every single punch that the Sangheilli were throwing at him. He didn't even have to think, his new arm just reacted even faster that his brain did. Whatever it was, it was helping him greatly. He pulled out his DMR and fired four rounds into the Sangheilli on the left's chin, then caught it as it fell down. He whipped around, still holding the body, as the other Elite chopped downwards with its energy sword. It caught on the corpse, spraying blood in its face, effectively blinding it. Six pushed the body against the Elite, pushing it into the wall with great force. The Sangheilli roared directly in his face, getting Sangheilli saliva on his visor. He drew back with his robotic fist.

"Roar." He said.

He took his prosthetic and plunged it deep into the Elite's throat, killing it. He looked over at John. He was still stuck in combat with the General, and it was a very even fight. Six unevened it by throwing the body of its comrade into the General, stunning it. John finished the fight with a spinning flourish, using his momentum to cut with the force of an industrial saw. He buried the energy sword into the General's neck, finishing the battle. For the moment.

The corridor was littered with Sangheilli bodies. Six looked at John, and John did the same. The started laughing and gave each other an epic high five. They parted, then ran down the hallway. Now was the time to get out of there.

* * *

**HOORAY FOR ACTION SCENES!**

**Keep reading, dudes and dudettes!**

**~Husky**


	15. Below

Noble Six and John-117 exited the security substation and were greeted with the sight of Bravo 022's remains. The Pelican had crash landed on the beach after being shot down by Covenant forces. Six looked over near the crash site. Bodies of marines were scattered about the wreckage like ragdolls, and the Covenant were sniffing about the Pelican, looking for something.

"Jesus. Look at them all. Alot of Covenant to surround one crash site." Six said to Cortana.

"Bravo 022 was bringing us some heavy weapons. After I saw we were up against Hunters, I thought you could use them." She replied.

"Well, that means that we should probably get them, huh?" Six said.

"Yup." John said.

"Alright. Stay low." Six replied.

The two Spartans crouched down and proceeded slowly down to the wreckage. There were numerous Covenant, including Grunts, Elites, and Jackals, but they were few and far apart, so they were easy to dodge. When they finally got to the crashed Pelican, they had gone unnoticed.

"Woah. That's a lot of guns." Six said.

There were rocket launchers, shotguns, grenades and landmines lining the cargo hold.

"Take what you can carry. I'm just gonna grab me…"

He grabbed a pair of shotguns.

"…Two of these."

"Sergeant Johnson would be envious." John said as he grabbed a few mines and a rocket launcher. "Do you think we can get back up there unnoticed?"

"Maybe. Let's try and find a way back in. Stay quiet." Six replied.

"Trust me, I'm good at that." John said back.

The two had to circle around and get back to the Cartographer's entrance. Six almost walked in before he saw the second pair of Hunters that they had to deal with in that day.

"Great. Another pair of 'em."

"Well, this will be my fifth and sixth Hunter encounter of the day."

"You mean third and fourth?"

"No."

"You fought two OTHER Hunters before I got here?"

"Yeah."

"Nice."

"Yeah, I got lucky."

"Alright. Let's see if we can kill these things quiet. If we can't…"

He pointed to the two shotguns on his back.

John nodded.

The two Spartans pulled out their combat knives and inched towards the Hunters, who currently had their backs turned. Six went in for the kill.

"Now!"

He thrust his combat knife into the now-alert Hunter's back, doing little else but pissing it off. John jumped on his Hunter's back and started stabbing it in the face-area. Six's turned around and started charging it's laser, so Six punched the laser cannon down hard with his left arm, putting a giant dent in it. This gave Six an idea. He punched the Hunter's shield, making a dent in that as well. While the Hunter was raising its cannon again, Six punched it back down, busting it. It tried to charge its cannon, but it stopped mid-charge. Six took the opportunity of the Hunter's surprise to punch it in the face with his human hand, causing it to spin, dazed. He took one of his shotguns and pushed the barrel against the Hunter's soft flesh, then pulled the trigger. Its own wormy membrane acted as a muffler, almost silencing the shotgun blast, killing the Hunter in the process. Six looked over at John. He was finishing up the fight, carving the Hunter like a Christmas ham. He gave one final stab, and the Hunter fell, sure to make a loud crashing noise. Six ran up and caught it with both arms before it could hit the floor. John jumped off of it, and Six placed the Hunter's corpse slowly on the ground.

"Nice one." Six said to John.

"You too." John said

"Thanks." Replied Six.

The two travelled back to the security room, unsure of what to do next.

"Anything new open up, Cortana?" Six said.

"Analyzing… Bingo. There is an entrance to an elevator shaft not far from here. I'll mark it for you." Cortana said.

"Thanks, Cortana." John said.

"No problem." She replied.

* * *

The two Spartans were now in the elevator shaft, and below them was a drop of an unknown distance.

John walked towards the edge and kicked a piece of debris off of the platform, down the elevator shaft. They never did hear a noise.

"We should stick to the platform. Long way down." Six said.

The elevator travelled down, down into the abyss. A few minutes later, it stopped.

Six's radio crackled to life. "Foehammer to ground teams, you got two enemy dropships coming in fast!"

"Dammit!" Sergeant Johnson said. "Okay, people, we got company comin', let's set the table. Engage enemy forces on sight!"

"It'll be easier to hold them off from inside the structure. Can you get inside?" Cortana asked.

"Negative! They're closin' in too fast, negative!" Johnson replied. "Chief! You gotta find the Cartographer! We'll keep 'em busy as long as we can!"

"Give 'em hell, Marine." Cortana said as she ended the transmission. "We'll be in a tight spot if we don't get out of here before additional reinforcements arrive. Let's find that map."

"Understood." Six said. He looked over at John. "You're a quiet one, aren't you?"

John looked up. "Just figured that out, did you?"

"Never mind. Not important anyways, Mr. Sourpuss."

John simply sighed and chuckled. Six smiled. He was surprised that he had made friends with the legendary Master Chief. Sure, his exploits were just as legendary, and maybe some of their friendship was built on pure respect for each other, but as far as he knew, John was a very closed up person before they met.

Six wondered why.

The two finally reached the Cartographer. When they entered the room, there was a table and a holo-panel.

"There. That holo-panel should activate the map." Cortana said.

John walked up to it and pressed it.

The table lit up, and above it, a holo display of Halo appeared from thin air. It span a bit, and then the Halo broke into sections before them.

"Analyzing... Halo's control center is located _there_." Cortana said as one particular piece enlarged and highlighted itself.

"That structure appears to be some sort of temple or shrine, if I've interpreted this correctly… Interesting…"

"What's interesting?" Six asked.

"A shrine is an unlikely place to put such a significant installation."

Six thought about that for a minute. "A shrine? Are you sure?"

"Gimmie a second, Six." Cortana said as she switched to radio-chat. "Cortana to Captain Keyes."

"Alright then." Six said. He looked over at John. John simply shrugged.

"The Captain has dropped out of contact, Cortana." Foehammer replied. "His ship may be out of range or having equipment problems."

"Keep trying. Let me know when you've reestablished contact, and then tell him that the Master Chief, Noble Six and I have determined the location of the control center. We'll be heading there as soon as we're topside." Cortana said.

"Affirmative. Foehammer out."

A large group of Elites poured out from behind them. Six pressed the holo-pad and shut down the display. He pulled his magnum and started firing. John unsheathed his energy sword and went to work on the bulk of them. He killed one or two, but he was soon shot, so he retreated back while carrying his assault rifle, firing on the enemy. Six drew his shotguns and held one in either hand, killing several of the Sangheilli. An Elite Zealot approached from the middle, roaring with his fist up in an ungodly war cry. He ran at Six while he had his back turned and stabbed him in the side with his wrist blades. Six grabbed his side and looked at the Zealot.

"You fucker!" Six yelled as he turned one of his shotguns on the Elite and pulled the trigger. The Zealot dropped with a thump.

Several more Elites occupied the room. Now there were at least one and one half dozen of them, give or take one or two. The entire tim, Six and John were firing round after round into the horde.

"Jesus, this is a nightmare! How could this get any worse?!" Six said.

His shotguns suddenly ran out of shells.

"Of course!" Six yelled. "I'm out of ammo!"

Even more Elites entered the room. "So am I!" John yelled.

"I'm assuming this is our cue to get out of here!" Six shouted over the sound of gunfire.

"Let's go." John replied loudly.

The two ran for a minute straight, finally getting to the surface with two dozen or more Elites following in their wake.

"Cortana to Echo 419. We are topside, requesting pickup."

"Roger. On my way." Foehammer replied.

"I'm getting really _sick_ of being chased all of the time!" Six yelled.

"Oh, save your energy!" John yelled back.

The Pelican landed about twenty yards in front of them. John and Six were running like cheetahs. Six threw one of his shotguns behind him, tripping an Elite and causing it to fall flat on its face.

"Haha! Gotcha!" Six yelled behind him.

"Jump!" John yelled.

The two Spartans lept the final four feet into the Pelican's back as it was taking off. It rose very quickly, the pilot obviously aware of the storm of Covenant behind them.

"Goddamn. That was the second time we've done that in two days." Six said.

"Not looking forward to doing that again." John said.

"Let's get moving. Foehammer. Here are coordinates and a flight plan I've worked out." Cortana said to the pilot.

"But, Cortana... these coordinates are underground." Foehammer said back.

"The Covenant did a thorough seismic scan. My analysis shows that Halo is honeycombed with deep tunnels - which circle the whole ring."

"Is that—" John said.

"No way." Six said

A structure in the Cartographer lifted up, revealing an underground tunnel.

"Are we going down there?" Six asked nervously.

"Yeah, I guess so. Why, Is there a problem?" John said.

"No." Six said quickly.

John gave him a look, which, even under his helmet, he could tell was doubting him.

"Okay, yes. I just… I _really_ don't like going underground." Six said.

"Oh, come on. Big bad Noble Six is afraid of a little dirt?"

"Fuck off." Six replied.

John just laughed. He was loving this.

"I hope your analysis is on-the-money, Cortana. This Pelican won't turn on a dime." Foehammer said.

"That's reassuring." Six said in a grim tone.

"Look on the bright side. The last thing the Covenant will expect is an aerial insertion... from underground."

The Pelican lowered down into the structure and the top closed with a crash. They were now submerged in complete darkness.

"Boo." Six heard john say.

"Fuck you." Six replied.

John just chuckled as they went further down into the caverns below.


	16. Snow

The Pelican containing Noble Six and John-117 rose upwards from the pit, startling a group of sleeping Grunts. The sound of Foehammer's jets alerted them to danger, and they ran for their lives. The Pelican turned around, back facing the platform, and the back door opened, revealing the two Spartans and several soldiers, all of them skilled and armed to the teeth.

"This is as far as I can go." Foehammer said.

"Roger that, we can find our way to the Control Center from here." Cortana responded.

"Good luck. Foehammer out."

The two Spartans and the handful of soldiers disembarked from the Pelican, guns drawn and at the ready. The few Covenant that had been near the landing site had run away, most likely to get help. Six had no doubts in his mind that they were everywhere around them.

John decided to open his mouth first. "Seems like it's your turn to be the quiet one. You haven't talked since we came down here."

"You know why." Six replied.

Six absolutely hated going underground. He had nothing against deep, dark caves and things like that, but as soon as he had to go into them, he felt like dropping everything and running. It was an irrational fear in his opinion, but he had good reason for it. Once, before he met Noble Team, he was on a mission, some place he couldn't remember nor pronounce the name of. The mission entailed an underground op, and he was found. Before he could escape, the cave's entrance was blown before he could escape, and rock trapped him on all sides. It took him seven and a half hours to dig his way out with his hands. The rock was so thick he couldn't use his coms until he made a hand-sized hole in the rock. He had to be very careful, or else the ceiling would have collapsed on him, and that would have been pretty bad. By the time he had gotten out, he was done with going below ground level.

He never did tell anyone in Noble Team, but he was freaking out the entire time while they were down in the cavern below Sword Base.

"Alright. I'm just saying, quiet isn't your style." John said. "Try and forget that we're down here…"

"Thanks." Six replied.

"…Hundreds of feet below ground…"

"…Yeah."

"…With no support for miles—"

"As your better, I command you to stop." Six said in a _very_ serious tone.

John saluted. "Sir, yes sir."

He almost sounded a little disappointed.

They approached a circular room that was relatively large. The strategist in Six said that it looked like a good place for an ambush, so he alerted everyone around him. He held a fist up, telling everyone to wait. He walked forward a bit, and looked ahead. Then he looked above him. It looked normal enough. Then the air moved. He looked closer. He could see the faint outlines of a dozen of Sangheilli with camouflage hiding on the upper level up the room. He walked back slowly, knowing that he was almost about to walk everyone into an ambush. He waved towards himself, and everyone followed.

"Here's the plan. We have to get to Halo's Control room, and there are at least a dozen stealth Elites hiding up on the second level in there. Me and the Master Chief are going to go in, you guys wait until you hear gunfire and explosions before you follow us." Six said.

The marines and John nodded, and then John followed.

"Pretty good plan. You sounded professional." John said as they snuck towards the room.

"I am professional, when I need to be. I just want to take my mind off of this underground thing." Six replied.

"Shhhh… What's up ahead?" John said.

"You mean past the Sangheilli? I'm assuming more of these rooms. The Covenant probably have this place locked down. Do you still have one of those land mines?"

"Yeah, I have both. Need one?"

"Yeah, give it here. I have a plan. Grab yours too. We're going to make some noise, then use them."

"I doubt that they're dumb enough to walk into them." John said.

"Who said that they were going to walk into them?" Six replied.

John looked at Six for a moment, then grinned under his helmet. "this ought to be good."

* * *

"Ready?" Six said to John.

"Ready." John said to Six.

Six ran into the doorway. "Hello, you dumb sons of bitches!" He yelled into the room.

Some of the Elites broke camo and started firing. The rest followed suit. Six took cover behind the entrance to the room.

"You want to kill me? Come and get it!" Six yelled as several Sangheilli jumped from their perches and followed him. He was surprised that the plan was working so far.

"On my mark, John." Six said.

"Three…"

The Elites were getting closer.

"Two…"

They were almost upon them, a second or two later and…

"One…"

They were a few feet from the door…

"Mark!" Six said as he and John both armed their landmines. They both threw the mines like Frisbees, landing them under the Elite's feet. One of them jolted to a halt, causing him to trip and fall on the now armed mine. He and three or four of his comrades were blown back and killed. John's landmine went underfoot an Elite that didn't notice it, killing it and a handful of Elites. There were three or four left, obviously startled by the sudden loss of their comrades. They didn't run, however. They stood vigilant and kept firing.

"Now, marines!" Six yelled. As he did, the handful of marines spilled out from the doorway and began firing on the Elites. Along with John and Six's precision fire, they were unstoppable, and the few Sangheilli left dropped like flies.

Six looked around the room. Then he looked above him. Everything seemed just fine.

"Well that went better than expect—" Six was cut off by a Hunter's plasma cannon hitting him in the back, throwing him on the ground. He got back up as quickly as he could, but his back was on fire. The pain was substantial, but he shrugged it off and started firing on the Hunter along with the rest of the squad.

The Hunter blocked every bullet that hit it with its shield, doing no damage at all.

"Watch my back! I'm moving up!" John said.

"Gotcha covered!" Six said.

John ran towards the Hunter, rolling out of the way of a plasma blast. He got nearby its front, and he made it turn itself around so its back was facing the squad.

Six took this as an opportunity to attack. He ran at the Hunter's back fast, took a leap, and grabbed the Hunter by the top of its head and pulled back. John fired at its throat while the marines fired on its back. Six had to lift his feet, because the marines almost hit him, too.

"Watch your fire!" Six yelled as he tried to move out of the way of the bullets.

After a few more seconds, the Hunter fell, shaking the ground around it.

"Jesus H. Christ…" Six said. "Does my back look okay?"

"It'll be fine. Your shields absorbed most of the impact." John replied.

"Really? Feels like my spine did." Six said under his breath. He cracked his back and started forward. "Move up, marines!" He yelled, beckoning forward. The marines followed. Six looked at John.

"I don't have any more neat plans, so we're going to have to be careful up here. Try not to get shot." Six said.

"That _is _a neat plan." John said as they travelled forwards, ever closer to the Control Center.

* * *

"Jesus, how many of these things are there?!" Six yelled as he shot Elite after Elite, with John and the now smaller group of marines close behind. There had been several rooms like the one that they had encountered earlier, and they had lost three of their marines in the process. There were only four left now, and they looked a little more agitated than before. John answered Six's question punctually.

"A lot!" John replied.

"No shit!" Six shot back.

"Does anyone see an exit?" Six shouted back at the marines.

"Over there! We haven't been through there yet!" One of the marines said, pointing at a large, airtight door.

"Let's get over there, then!" Six yelled. "Move!"

Six shot at the Elites as he ran to the door, with John and two of the marines close behind.

"Where are the other two marines?" John asked.

"Dead, sir." A marine replied. "It's just us now."

"Dammit!" Six yelled. A few more yards to the door, and…

The door whooshed open, and the soldiers ran through. The door closed behind them and locked, separating the Elites from them. Six turned around, and gazed upon the sight that was now before him. They were now on a bridge. But something seemed amiss. Then, a flake of white landed on Six's arm. He lifted the arm up to look at it. It was a snowflake.

It was snowing. But… They were underground.

"What…?" Six said as he stared at the suddenly introduced sky and the snow falling from it. The two remaining marines were looking around too, confused as to how this was possible. John was, too.

"Cortana, where are we, exactly? I thought we were underground." John said.

"I'm not sure… Hold on." Cortana said. A few seconds passed, and then she spoke up.

"Interesting... the weather patterns here seem natural, not artificial. I wonder if the ring's environment systems are malfunctioning... or if the designers wanted the installation to have inclement weather. "

"Whatever this is, this is beyond strange. It almost makes me think that we're still aboveground." Six said. "Almost. Stick close everyone."

Six's radio started crackling, and a Pelican flew over the bridge. Covenant forces that Six had yet to see started firing on the dropship as it crossed over the bridge.

"This is Fire Team Zulu requesting immediate assistance from any UNSC forces. Does anyone copy? Over." A soldier said, likely the pilot.

"I didn't think there were any human forces left on this part of the ring." Cortana said. She patched into the radio and responded. "Cortana to Fire Team Zulu, I read you. Fire Team Zulu, this is Cortana. Hold position. We're on our way." She said.

After a moment, there was a response. "Roger that. Make it quick." The pilot said as he turned the pelican and flew it under the bridge.

"Alright, we're going to have to high-tail it if we want to get to Zulu in time. Move it, everyone!" Six said as they traversed the bridge. The squad entered a structure and went down the stairs, then exited through the bottom floor. They were greeted by the sight of a flipped Warthog sitting next to a canyon, and a trio of marines defending themselves against a legion of Covenant, including Jackals, Grunts and Elites.

"Blast 'em!" Six yelled as they charged into battle. The squad was firing on the Covenant from the back, killing many of them without being noticed over the gunfire. They got away with a few more kills until someone realized where the bullets were coming from, then opened fire on the bigger threat. Quite a few of the Covenant turned to shoot, and quite a few were gunned down before they could pull their triggers. A stray plasma blast caught one of their marines in the face, sending him stumbling off of the cliff and into the canyon below.

"Shit." Six said under his breath.

A few minutes later, the other marine was shot with a needler four or five times, ending her life as well.

"Shit!" Six said again.

After another seven or eight minutes of constant gunfire, the Covenant were slain, and the very few that survived were fleeing. Six and John travelled over to the fallen warthog, where a combat medic was tending to a soldier who had taken plasma burns on his chest. The third marine had his hand on the man's shoulder, comforting him

"You're going to be okay, don't you worry." The marine said.

"I need some space, will you give me a minute?" The medic said.

"You got it Doc." The marine said as he stood and turned around. It was none other than their friend, Clancy Maegan.

"Look who it is." Six said as he walked up to the now standing marine. "How're you doing, Clancy?"

"Trust me, I've been better. He sure as hell has been better." Clancy said as he gestured towards the fallen marine. "Glad you could join the party, sirs."

"I can't exactly say the same, but hey, who else is going to do it?" Six responded. "What a coincidence that, of all people, they sent you in here."

"Actually, sir, I asked." Clancy responded. "I want to fight on the front lines. I'm thinking about becoming an ODST one day."

"That's a dangerous job, Clancy. Not to mention you have to have months of intense training first. And that's just to get a Spec-Ops position, not even to be an ODST."

"Whatever the training, It's worth it. I want to really help, not be cannon fodder for the Covenant." Clancy responded.

"It is your choice. And it could be a good idea. There would be one more smartass backing me up in a firefight." Six said, grinning under his helmet. "Alright, enough chit-chat. We need to get to that Control Center. Are you done over there?"

"Just about! He'll be up and moving in no time!"

"Alright then. Move it, everyone!"

Clancy saluted him. "Sir, yes sir." He said.

And with that, Six, John, Clancy and the others went towards the sounds of gunfire up ahead.

* * *

**I just realized that this is the longest chapter so far! High five me! **

**...Nice one!**

**Also, for those who haven't seen my addition to the end of chapter fourteen, I put a poll up on what I should write next as a side thing to this story. I'm thinking Sly Cooper, but i'm not too sure. Just go to my Profile by clicking on my name. It's right at the top.**

**Keep reading, dudes and dudettes!**

**~Husky**


	17. Glue

"Enemy forces eliminated." Clancy said, happily. They had just finished a firefight, and they had escaped with few to no injuries.

"God damn, I love these things." Six said as he exited a Scorpion tank that they had come across. "So much firepower!" Six walked towards the newest group of marines that they had just saved. "Are you sure we get everyone? 'Cause I'm willing to get back in that tank if you guys want."

"That's the last of 'em, area secure. They did their damnedest, that's for sure. This is all that's left of my platoon! The Covenant are down here in force, and they brought plenty of toys. I wouldn't have given us a snowball's chance until you two showed up." A high ranked marine said.

"I can tell from your voice that you're from Fire Team Zulu. Are you the Sergeant?" Six asked.

"Yes sir, I am." The Sergeant replied.

"Alright then. Keep your aim steady." Six said. He walked over to John, who had been riding shotgun (Or machine gun, depending on how you look at it) in the tank with him. He was leaning against the tank's tread.

"Having fun?" John asked.

"Yeah, I am, actually. You?"

"It never is for me." John said in his normal, deep voice. "Too serious, I guess."

"I understand what you mean. I try to force myself to have fun these days. Sometimes though, like then, I didn't have to. Tanks are nice that way." Six said.

John chuckled. "Okay, I have to admit, the tank was fun."

"Glad to hear that you think so. I'm going to get everyone moving in a minute, so make sure you're ready." Six said.

"Aye aye, Cap'n." John said with a friendly salute. Six saluted him back and turned to address the marines.

He looked at the bulk of them and thought about what he was going to say. _Screw it. I can make it up as I go along,_ He thought. He took a deep breath and started.

"I hope you'll all be ready in the next thirty seconds, because we can't stick around long."

He took a pause. Everyone looked up at him.

The pressure was on.

"If we don't get to Halo before the Covenant do, we could be in it pretty deep. Do not run. Do not hide. You have an entire team that has your backs, including me. As far as I'm concerned, you are the toughest sons of bitches in the entire marine corp. Do not let your emotions take control of you. And if you see any of those Covenant scum, shoot them right in between the eyes." Six said as he gestured to the top-middle part of his visor. "We are going to win this fight, and we're going to make the Covenant wish they had never come across the Human race!" He cleared his throat as quietly as he could, then continued. "Am I RIGHT, marines?!" He shouted with his fist in the air.

"SIR, YES SIR!" The marines shouted back, saluting him.

"Alright, move out!" Six said as he loaded his DMR and his shotguns. John walked up from his side.

"Good speech." He said.

"Thanks." Six responded.

John was about to walk away with the rest of the soldiers, but Six stopped him.

"Hey, could I talk to you for a minute? I just remembered I never answered your question." He said.

"What question?" John replied.

"When we crash landed on the Installation, I said that I didn't want to lose everyone again."

"Right. I remember asking about that."

"I used to be in a squad called Noble team. I was the last one alive, and I was found minutes before you were pulled from cryosleep. I should have told you about this before, but I was a little… mentally unstable… for a little while."

"Does that have anything to do with your fit of rage on the Autumn?"

"Maybe. I was completely isolated for two weeks, and after a few days, I started having these dreams, about what happened to my team members. On the ship… It was my friend, Kat. She got shot in the back of her head while her shields were down. I had to drop her, and we ran. But in my dream, I fought."

Six holstered the shotguns on his back.

John looked at him. "When were you going to tell me this? This is huge." He said.

"When it became relevant." He replied.

"It was relevant before." John shot back.

"It never got brought up."

"You should have brought it up on the Autumn then."

"I just wanted you to understand, I didn't need your opinion."

"Then why did you tell me in the first place?"

Six just sighed. "Forget it." He said.

"No." John replied. "I've only known you for a few days, Six, but I'm sure as hell not going to let you stew in your own guilt and misery."

Six looked up.

"You're a friend. Friends stick together." John told him. "Like glue."

John looked behind himself. The marines were a good fifty feet away now.

"We'll talk more later, alright?" John said, walking towards the marines.

As John walked away, Six thought about that. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. They'd only known each other for a few days, but John was calling him his friend.

Six grabbed a few grenades, and started walking towards the marines, too.

LINELINELINELINELINE

"Aw, crap. Let's get the hell outta here, man! Somebody call the dropship!" A marine near the back of the group said. Six turned his head and was about to tell him to grow a spine, but Clancy did it for him.

"Shut up! Show some backbone, will you?" He said.

"Alright, we need a few of you to travel with the Master Chief through this ridge. The others can go with Noble Six to advance from the side and attack from there. Any takers?" The Sergeant said. A few marines raised their hands and advanced towards John, including Clancy, and a couple others stayed where they were.

"Alright, you four are with me, then. Hop to it." Six said. "You too, Sergeant."

"Yes sir." The Sergeant said.

Six took a quick look at the Chief, and the Chief took a quick look at him. They nodded, and set off on their assigned courses.

The group cut around the main path and approached a low part in the ridge. Six adjusted the scope on his DMR to his liking, checked the chamber and loaded it. He was thinking about what John had said.

_I'm sure as hell not going to let you stew in your own guilt and misery._ _You're a friend. Friends stick together._

The thought of what John had said made something else occur to Six. He had something that he hadn't had for a long time.

He had someone that he could really, truly trust.

LINELINELINELINELINE

"Enemy mortar tanks sighted at my position... it's gonna be a busy day." Six said on his radio. He was prone, looking through the scope of his DMR. From where he was, he could see Wraiths in the icy canyon before them.

"The Covenant placed their tanks to defend the entrance to the tunnel." Cortana said. "The armor is thick, but my analysis indicates that the tanks have several weak spots, the engine on the back being the most prominent."

"Thanks, Cortana. Everyone ready?" Six said.

"Ready." His marines said.

"Ready." John said.

"Ready as we'll ever be." Clancy said.

Six took a pause. "Go!" he hissed. Six slid down the canyon and broke into a steep run halfway down, making large footprints in the snow. A Jackal located Six and started firing on him and his squad. The first of two Wraiths turned and fired an enormous plasma mortar into the sky.

"Watch it! Mortar!" A marine shouted over the gunfire. A loud explosion echoed from behind him, followed by a scream. John's marines ran down from their positions and opened fire on the second wraith. John jumped on the hood and ripped the Elite out of the turret. Six looked above him and saw another mortar flying down from above. Six jumped out of the way and ran around the Wraith. It turned slowly and boosted at him, catching him in the midsection. He clung to the front with his legs under the wraith, but he let go and was sucked under and shot out of the bottom. He rolled five feet and stopped, now behind the Wraith. He could see the Wraith's turret unloading on his soldiers, so he got up and ran at the back. He jumped on and tried to pry the engine cover off to no avail. He punched it with his robot arm, and the cover split easily. He grabbed a grenade and stuck it in the engine, causing a sickening sputtering noise.

"Get clear!" Six yelled as he jumped off and ran. The Wraith exploded a few seconds later, disintegrating the engine and killing the Covenant inside.

Six looked at John. He was punching a Hole in the driver's cover, and broke through. He grabbed the driving Elite, threw him out, and chucked a plasma grenade in. He jumped off, then in exploded, sending pieces flying. The marines from his and Johns squad had cleared out the surrounding Covenant, and the area was now clear.

"Good work, everyone. Move out." Six said into his radio as they approached the cave.


	18. Cavern

**Hola amigos! sorry for not updating in a while, I've been a little occupied writing my BRAND NEW Pokémon FanFic! The first chapter of it is up, just visit my profile to read it if you're interested. Sorry for the short chapter, by the way.**

**~Keep reading, Wolfgang!**

* * *

They were deep inside of the cave now, in pitch black darkness. The only thing surrounding Six was a handful of marines, maybe four or five, and the Master Chief. Along with those assets was his increasing anxiety of being down underground. Well, they already were, but the only thing that really mattered to Six at the moment was what his eyes were telling him, and they were telling him that he was descending into a large and dark hole in the side of a canyon.

A plasma bolt zipped past the group and hit the arctic wall behind them. Several Elite popped out from fissures and holes in the walls and other archways in the cavern and began firing on the marines.

"Watch out! More Covenant! Man, these guys are like cockroaches!" Clancy shouted as he raised his gun and fired. Six had raised his gun along with John not a second before, and within a few seconds it had turned into a full-fledged firefight.

Six had taken out one of his shotguns and was firing suppressing shots towards the savage warriors. These Elites were tougher than most, dodging shotgun slugs entirely and still accurately firing upon them.

_A shotgun isn't going to slow them down!_ Six thought to himself. He leaned behind a rock and set his back to the ice. Something was poking him in the back, so he reached behind him and pulled out what was bothering him. It was his second shotgun! He looked up at the marines. John was currently getting up close and personal with an Elite Captain, and it looked like everything was mostly under control. Mostly. Six popped up from cover and was about to fire, when…

"Shit! I'm out! I'm out of mags!" Clancy yelled. An Elite was running towards him, wrist blade drawn, maybe a few feet away. Six looked at him. He looked at his shotgun, then threw it to Clancy.

Clancy caught it and ducked out of the way of the thrusting blade, stumbling a bit. He stood back up and fired the shotgun right into the Sangheilli's toothy maw. He slid back a foot or two from the initial shotgun blast, but didn't fall over.

"Awesome! Much obliged, sir!" Clancy said with a salute. Six saluted him back and then turned to face the Covenant. They were thinning in number now, fewer coming at them. Six couldn't tell from the constant flow of bullets and plasma, but he assumed that there were less than seven of them left. John was still fighting the Captain, engaged in very close combat. A pair of Elites was running at the two combatants, one with an energy sword drawn.

"Anyone want to trade with me?!" John asked.

Six ran towards John. "Hell no, but who else is supposed to save your ass?" he said with a chuckle. John rolled backwards and Six jumped into position, his lightning reflexes blocking every punch the Sangheilli Captain was throwing. An energy sword came from nowhere, nearly piercing Six's skull before he ducked. He came back up with a cheap shot to the throat for the Captain. Six grabbed the arm of the energy sword Elite and stabbed it into the Captain's face, piercing his eyes. Six span around to the sword Elite's back, grabbed the top and bottom of its head, and snapped its neck. The second Elite approached from Six's other side, but didn't stand a chance against his superior strength, taking a large amount of controlled punches in the face before falling into a crumpled heap. The last two Elites were gunned down in the moments after Six defeated his last opponent.

"Area clear. Move up!" Six said. After a minute or so, they reached an upwards slope in the cavern, which the marines and Spartans were easily able to get up.

"Alright, headcount. One, two, three… Shit." Six said. They had lost two marines in the battle, and Six wasn't even aware. "Alright. Well I guess…" He trailed off. _Wait a minute…_

He looked at them. At their faces. Something was a little off.

Where was Clancy?

"Clancy? Yo, Clancy! You down there?" Six shouted down the slope.

No answer.

"I'm going back down there." Six said.

"Be quick, Six. We don't want the Covenant to get to the Control room before us." John said.

"Will do." Six replied, sliding back down the hill of ice.

He looked around in the dark. "Clancy!" he yelled. A coughing sound came from the back of the cave.

"Back here!" Clancy responded. Six ran to the back of the cave where Clancy was, kneeling down at his side.

"Thank god. C'mon, soldier. We still have business to take care of. Come on, up!" He said, attempting to get Clancy standing. He was midway through getting up, but he clutched his side and nearly fell over. Six looked at the wound. He was bleeding profusely from the same wound that he had acquired in the crash landing on Halo, a crescent moon cut that was an inch or two deep, reopened by an Elite's wrist blade.

"I don't think I'm going to make it far, sir." He said.

"Shrug it off. If you can't, I'll have to offer to carry you again." Six said. "I'm not going to let you die. Not on my watch."

"Why? I'll just inconvenience you anyways. I can't exactly… walk."

Six paused for a second, looking for the right words.

"Because good friends stick together." He said. "Like glue."

Clancy smiled. "You're right about that much, that's for damn sure." He said, attempting to stand once more. He supported himself on a nearby stone and, with the help of Six, got to his feet.

"Lean on me if you have to." Six told him. He kept sure footing whilst walking towards the slope, and was very careful on the way up. He put Clancy up first, and then climbed up himself. John saw the pair and jogged towards them.

"Glad you're alright, Clancy. Can you walk alright?" John asked.

"Yeah… I Think so." Clancy responded.

"Good, because we need to move." John said.

Six hurried to the head of the group, clapping to rouse attention. "Alright people." He said.

"Move out!"


End file.
